DVLA out of the blue take 140,000 licenses away with a stark warning
Thousands of motorists have been caught by the DVLA, with startling data revealing that one in every 191 motorists in one area of the UK have had their licences revoked
Thousands of motorists have been caught by the eagle-eyed DVLA as new data shows nearly 141,000 were banned.
Exactly 140,792 road users were taken off the road after being banned from driving, DVLA data analysed by motoring experts Dayinsure, revealed.
There are lots of different reasons behind the bans, including accumulating 12 penalty points to automatically trigger the ire of the motoring body. Some offences can lead to immediate bans, but the length is determined by a court and bans can range from six months to two years.
Nicholas Shaw, Director of Operations at Dayinsure, said: “You sadly cannot just assume that others will drive as carefully as you would.
“Ensure that you are fully insured in case worse comes to worse and you are involved in an accident.”
Some areas appear to have worse drivers. One in every 191 motorists in Bradford have had their licences revoked, far outpacing second-place Liverpool, LancsLive reported.
In Liverpool, one in every 204 drivers face a similar fate. Teesside rounds out the top three, with one in 231 motorists subject to a ban. While major cities like London, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Edinburgh managed to avoid the top five in terms of per-head stats, they still rank highly.
The capital city of London saw a total of 7,995 drivers banned, while Birmingham had over 4,000 disqualified motorists. However, their large populations help balance out these figures in the overall rankings. Blackburn, Leeds, Oldham, Sunderland and Halifax rounded out the top 10 areas in the UK.
There are also some staggering statistics among the data. Some 50 people have valid driving licences but have racked up over 30 penalty points.
Three male drivers have over 100 and one 26-year-old has 176. One 50-year-old woman has 96.
A total of 10,056 drivers hold a valid licence despite having at least 12 points. Nicholas Lyes, director of policy and standards at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, said: “These shocking statistics call into question whether the definition of exceptional hardship needs reviewing.
“Any driver that is on the cusp of a ban would normally take heed of the risk of losing their licence, but it seems that a minority continue to break the law without any consideration. At the very least, those that accrue 12 or more points on their licence should be required to take an additional training course, even if they are allowed to keep their licence because a court has deemed that losing it would cause exceptional hardship.”
Drivers should be wary of gaining points on their licence as they can be there for up to 11 years after teh offence is committed.
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