One million drivers who remained offence-free on the road over the past 12 months are being rewarded for their contribution to safety with a demerit point scrubbed from their licence.
The results of the second year of the Government\u2019s demerit point return scheme show drivers in car-reliant areas of Western Sydney and regional NSW are the biggest beneficiaries this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scheme provides a rare \u2018carrot\u2019 for people to drive safely as a counterbalance to the longstanding \u2018stick\u2019 of fines, double demerits and the loss of licence.
Almost 1.5 million drivers were eligible to have a demerit point removed when the second year of the trial started on January 17, with just over one million drivers (1,003,610) remaining offence-free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are now more than 420,000 drivers who have had a demerit point wiped two years running. Topping the list of suburbs was Blacktown where more than 6000 drivers are getting a point wiped. Castle Hill, Merrylands, Auburn, and Maroubra round out the top five suburbs, each with 4500 or more drivers to benefit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regional drivers were also doing the right thing in great numbers with motorists in Orange, Dubbo, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour notching up over 16,000 demerit points removed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Motorists will begin to see their licence demerit tally updated from the second quarter of 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the scheme enters its third year, the NSW Government is making an important adjustment to the end date of the 12-month period which will in future run to 31 January starting in 2026. This means that drivers who are close to benefiting with a point will need to drive safely and offence-free throughout the critical month of January which has in the past been marred by holiday crashes and deaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are 1,483,926 drivers eligible to benefit if they stay within the rules until 31 January 2026.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Government introduced a range of new road safety measures in 2024 which will continue or expand in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They include:
– The trial of average speed cameras for light vehicles in 2025
– Doubling roadside enforcement sites used for mobile speed cameras, with an additional 2,700 new sites where a camera can be deployed. Total enforcement hours will remain the same
– Seatbelt enforcement via the state\u2019s existing mobile phone cameras
– Removing a loophole to force all motorists driving on a foreign licence to convert to a NSW licence within six months
– Implementing recommendations from the Demerit Point Integrity Taskforce to stamp out rorting of the system by mainly visiting foreign nationals
– Releasing more ratings for bicycle helmets as part of the star rating system
– Signing the National Road Safety Data Agreement with the Commonwealth <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The demerit point reward scheme is open to eligible unrestricted and professional licence holders with active demerit points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One million drivers who remained offence-free on the road over the past 12 months are being rewarded for their contribution to safety with a demerit point scrubbed from their licence. The results of the second year of the Government\u2019s demerit point return scheme show drivers in car-reliant areas of Western Sydney and regional NSW … Continue reading “One million safe drivers rewarded with a demerit point removed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30973,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30972\/revisions\/30973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}