THE DAYS of disqualified drivers continuing to drive with impunity may be coming to an end under Garda proposals to replace the hand-held units used for the recording of penalty points.
Head of the Garda Traffic Corps assistant commissioner Eddie Rock said he wants new units with the capacity to download information from Pulse and the National Driver Vehicle File to inform gardaí at a checkpoint whether a motorist should be on the road. The force has more than 500 such units but has decided to replace them with more modern units.
The existing hand-held units can only record penalty point offences and have no wireless capability, meaning that they have to be "docked" into a main computer system at a Garda station to download the information. This means gardaí have no way of checking from the roadside whether a motorist is disqualified or not.
He said the next generation of machines are smaller, and can hold more information. He added that the new units would allow for the introduction of the more than 30 penalty point offences provided for in law but which have not yet been activated. He said he "doubted very much" if existing units could handle the expansion of the penalty points system.
The Garda is considering a number of different products, and Mr Rock said it was important to identify the most appropriate system as it would be used for the next "five to 10 years".
He hoped a decision on the new units would be made by the end of the year.
Coupled with the introduction of automatic number plate reading technology later this year, the new hand-held units will see the number of checks for licence and insurance increase dramatically.
