\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: In 2019, Martin (not his real name) ran two red lights on consecutive nights while driving home from work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two offences cost him 12 demerit points each, tipping him past the 24-point threshold and triggering a 12-week driving suspension for a first-time offender.<\/p>\n
He attended a retraining course for motorists whose licences had been suspended, then passed the tests required at the end of the course, which reduced his suspension period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The process took “a few weeks”, said the 32-year-old, who spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspension actually worked and I stopped getting demerit points,\u201d he said. \u201cMy old philosophy was that 24 points was a lot, but turns out it was easier to go over the limit than I thought.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Another driver, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a suspension is more “painful”. The man in his thirties had served a five-year driving suspension and a three-week jail sentence for causing a serious accident in 2020.<\/p>\n
He said fines do not deter unsafe driving, but a longer suspension might.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as a person is working and owning a car, a fine is not that big an amount to affect their behaviour. But demerit points will threaten their entitlement to drive, and that\u2019s something money can\u2019t buy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The bigger financial hit, he added, comes from a car’s depreciation. He estimated that a year off the road could cost a driver between S$10,000 and S$13,000 (US$7,800 to US$10,100) in Certificate of Entitlement value alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is, a lot of people don\u2019t realise this until it happens to them. They need to commit an error once first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Suspensions like these could become more common under changes to the Driver Improvement Points System, better known as the demerit points system. From Jan 1, 2027, the threshold for a first suspension will drop from 24 points in two years to 18, and suspension periods will lengthen.<\/p>\n
The changes are meant to deter traffic violations and keep errant motorists off the roads for longer periods, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE: In 2019, Martin (not his real name) ran two red lights on consecutive nights while driving home from work.\u00a0 The two offences cost him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--HE4WYyiP--\/c_crop,h_899,w_1599,x_1,y_61\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2024\/02\/22\/TP%20Speed%20and%20Red%20Light%20Camera_3.JPG?itok=s-ooKDmt","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16808,670,377,9929,1749,208,13604,27953],"class_list":["post-75354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-demerit","tag-drivers","tag-experts","tag-fines","tag-painful","tag-rules","tag-stricter","tag-suspensions","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}