Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 16 mars 1968 relative à la police de la circulation routière en ce qui concerne la conduite en dépit de la déchéance du droit de conduire.
General information ¶
- Authors
- CD&V Leen Dierick, Nahima Lanjri, Nathalie Muylle, Jef Van den Bergh
- Submission date
- Oct. 5, 2011
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Adopted
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- driving licence highway code traffic regulations road traffic
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA MR VB
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
June 21, 2012 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Rapporteur David Geerts ⚙
Mr. Speaker, I will briefly explain the report. Mr Van den Bergh said during his introductory presentation that this bill aims to establish a specific sanction in the event that a driver fails to deliver his driver’s license in time following his conviction to cease the right to drive.
Opinions have been issued on this subject by the Flemish Government, which Mr Van den Bergh has incorporated in the amendments. The representative of the Secretary of State ⁇ that the Secretary of State had no objections to the bill.
During the discussion, Ms. Lahaye-Battheu asked Mr. Van den Bergh a number of further questions regarding the amount of the fine. Mr Van den Bergh has responded to this. All amendments and the bill were unanimously adopted.
Rapporteur Bert Wollants ⚙
Mr. Speaker, I also give a brief explanation to the report. The bill aims to ensure that anyone who still drives a vehicle despite the expiration of the right to drive or the immediate withdrawal of his driver’s license is treated in the same way as is currently in the recidivism regime.
Currently, this regulation is already in place with immediate withdrawal. The proposal of Mr Van den Bergh ensures that it is also applied following the expiration of the right to send.
The Commissioners asked a number of questions on the general problem, rather to guide the regulation in general, but there were few comments on this specific proposal. It was unanimously adopted by the committee.
Jef Van den Bergh CD&V ⚙
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the reporters for their brief but complete report.
Mr. Minister, colleagues, I may fall into repetition, but I think we cannot repeat it enough: the traffic costs in our country on average more than 15 lives every week! Every week, 15 people die on our roads! Every week, more than 100 people are seriously injured, and often drawn for life. In addition to those immediate victims, there are also many family members and friends who have to live with a great loss or with a strongly caring person. These are figures that we must keep in mind every day in our work.
Our country has set as its goal to halve the number of deaths by 2020. In order to ⁇ this, measures are essential, and not merely symbolic measures. Measures are needed, targeting those categories of drivers that make our roads systematically unsafe, if any: alcohol recidivists, speed devils and punishment evaders.
It is precisely these three target groups that CD&V is trying to incorporate into a comprehensive plan to strictly address these categories, a plan with 12 bills that address this small but hard core of problem managers on our roads. The legislative proposals presented today fit into this plan.
The two legislative proposals are aimed at the target group of criminals, a hard core of managers who systematically seek to evade any punishment imposed on them.
The first bill, which is put to the vote today, introduces a higher level of punishment and the possibility of imposing an additional driving ban on convicted drivers who, despite a driving ban, have not come to hand over their driving licenses. The law stipulates that the driving license must be submitted to the office within four days of notification. The decay then begins from the fifth day.
It is so, that it is signaled to us from the police services and from the police courts, that an ever-increasing group of convicted drivers realizes that the likelihood of getting caught is very small and that on the other hand the fine imposed on them is very limited, because there is no specific penalty today for such violations.
Unfortunately, there are no general figures, but from the figures we received from the police prosecutor’s office in Bruges it appears that in 2010 1,261 convicted persons, yet a significant group in a fairly limited judicial district, failed to submit their driving licenses in time.
The figures of the other districts would not differ much from this percentage. With this bill, we want to provide for a specific punishment for this violation. Thanks to this proposal, a higher price will have to be paid for it, a penalty large enough to be effectively deterrent, which today is not the case. Furthermore, the proposal provides that the expiration period begins again at the moment the driving license is effectively delivered. For example, if that happens after eight days, the deadline is not already three days running. Thus, one cannot recover a day driving ban by delaying the driving license.
The second proposal, which we will address immediately, introduces the regimen for the recidive, as already cited by the rapporteur. The proposed penalty is analogous to the penalty already applied in the case of repeated driving despite immediate withdrawal of the driver’s license and driving without a valid driver’s license in general, a recidive regime that did not exist in driving despite the expiration of the right to drive. A similar punishment for a similar offence.
Two fairly small bills, but they can give a signal to a small group of offenders: a punishment is a punishment and one must effectively comply with the punishments imposed. It can’t be that a hard core of problem managers always starts the dance and knows the back doors to escape certain penalties and penalties. A rigorous approach is needed because it is those criminals who have lost sight of any morality related to road safety and have a significant negative impact on road safety in our country. Furthermore, it is only correct that their penalties are also effectively applied to all those drivers who, in the event of a minor breach, pay their fine or their immediate inning in due faith. Until then my explanation.