Gutted...

[Fat Tony]

I think your main problem will not be speed cameras and demerit points so much as cars driven by people not skilled enough to use the average household appliance.

Sounds all too familiar Bad Dad! Policy over here over the last few years has been to depend on cameras to improve road saftey while at the same time reducing the number of traffic cops on the road. The result... plumeting driving standards and awful drivers continue to be a danger to all with sod all chance of getting caught doing it.

Then came some sort of clamp down from the cops left on traffic duty, booking people for the likes of eating a mars bar while stopped at a red light pmsl. There was also a time when you heard of people getting booked (rightly so) for using mobile phones while driving, but that hasn't stopped the majority of drivers continuing to focus on their phones and the inside of their car rather than the road and events around them. Scary.

[marty]

(not really... second cousin twice removed by marriage, to my mums siters brothers uncle's dads third daughter's husbands brother best friend or something, lol) down in Dunedin

are you sure it's not Gore?

[Fat Tony]

are you sure it's not Gore?

What goes on in Gore then?

[marty]

about the same as what goes on in Wadebridge, Cornwall....

[Ixion]

are you sure? that's not how the act reads

Cancellation and reinstatement of demerit points—


(1)When 2 years have elapsed since the commission of an offence in respect of which demerit points were recorded, the entry of the points made in respect of that offence ceases to have effect in relation to the person who committed that offence; but if demerit points were recorded in respect of 2 or more offences committed by that person, the entry ceases to have effect when 2 years have elapsed since the commission of the most recent of those offences.

The section is unclear, and has been debated before.

Fortunately, however, for the main purpose of demerit points (suspension of licence) it is also irrelevant, since sect 90 is quite clear

[90.Suspension of licence or disqualification from driving under demerit points system—

(1)If, in any 2-year period, a total of 100 or more demerit points have effect against a person, the Director must, by notice in writing given to that person, either—
(a)suspend that person's current driver licence for 3 months; or
(b)if the person does not hold a current driver licence on the date of the giving of the notice, disqualify the person from holding or obtaining a driver licence for 3 months.

So, any points counting toward suspension must be in a two year period. So those older than two years old cannot count, whether cancelled or not.

Possibly, depending on the interpretation of sect 91, points older than two years could be relevant toward non-suspension issues (eg consideration for admittance to the (now defunct) CBTA scheme).

But as far as keeping you licence goes, it's only the last two years that matter.

[marty]

i think S91 is pretty clear. who has debated it? on here doesn't really count.

[Ixion]

Why doesn't here count? And if it is clear then why the different interpretations? Especially as one of them (the "don't expire until the newest is two years old" one) is a nonsense in the context of S90. What (apart from oddball uses such as CBTA) is the point of retaining points that might be twenty years old ,as such an interpretation would allow , if only those in the last two years are relevant for suspension? (Clearly, if there had been 100 points at an earlier time, then the licence would have been suspended then and the points wiped).

If the intent of the law had been that you must have a "clean slate" before any points are wiped, then they would not have had the "two year window". S90 would simply have said "If anyone accumulates 100 points" Full stop.

If points were not wiped after 2 years, you could have a thousand points dating back twenty years, yet still be OK provided you did not have more than 100 in the last two years.

For practical purposes the points cease to be a worry after two years (S90). Whether they are retained impotently "on the record" for some bureaucratic purpose, I don't know. Or care.

[marty]

who makes the differing interpretations? us? i'm only quoting the law. i don't have an opinion on the matter.

[Patrick]

They die after two years... the next ones last two years, then they die... they don't go on forever if you got another ticket after 1 year and 363 days...