Driving without a driver’s license, but sinners are clumbled faster
With around 100,000 they are approximately every year: people who are convicted by a court and receive a driving ban. Some of them crawl behind the wheel again despite that ban. And in addition there are of course also people who just don’t have a driver’s license, but still drive the car.
Caught
The most recent figures that come from the Database of the College of Procurators General show that last year a record number of drivers without a driver’s license ran into the lamp. 42,049 to be precise. That is no less than 6,451 or 18 percent more than the year before. In five years, the increase is even 25 percent.
No fewer than 42,000 drivers ran into the lamp during police control because they crawled behind the wheel without a driver’s license. – © Belga Image
Of the 181,655 drivers who have taken the police into the collar for the past five years, 5 percent are recidivist. That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s about 9,000 people who are caught two or three times. Fifteen were even caught four times.
Stubborn and hard leather
CD&V MP Tine Gielis, who requested the figures from party mate and Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden, calls the figures disturbing. « Going into the job without a valid driver’s license testifies to a conscious choice to ignore the rules. That some people even go wrong several times, confirms the importance of a structural approach, » says Gielis. CD&V argues for harder penalties of stubborn drivers, among other things. « The figures prove that there is insufficient deterrence. Those who are hard leather must be tackled strictly. »
CD&V Member of Parliament Tine Gielis wants drivers who run hard to drive around harder without a driver’s license. – © Belga
Despite the high figures, Stef Willems of the VIAS Road Safety Institute is talking about a hopeful evolution. « If fewer driving bans are pronounced, but more offenders are hidden, this means that the chance of being caught has grown. So the message to offenders is: if you drive without a driver’s license, you will be caught faster. »
“The message to offenders is: if you drive without a driver’s license, you will be caught faster”
Stef Willems
Vias
Why is that? Some public prosecutors play information to the police from people who were a driving ban. Via ANPR cameras they can then be caught faster if they crawl behind the wheel. In addition, it has become easier for the police to make searches in the database with driving licenses and, for example, to detect false reports from the loss of a driver’s license, says Stef Willems. « The convicted persons only have to hand in their driving license after a few weeks and sometimes make a declaration of loss, so that they get a duplicate of their driver’s license. The police can now see that faster. » Annelies Verlinden wants to make the database in any case even more performance and ensure that the police, the judiciary and the FPS Mobility can get all the information.
Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) wants to make databases with data on driving licenses more efficient, so that sinners can be caught even more and faster. – © Belga/Belpress
In the longer term, according to Vias and CD&V, a digital driver’s license must be installed. The bank card that many already have, but one with a chip in it. This can then be activated or desactivated. And in the even longer term it could be used to open or start your car. Those who do not have a driver’s license simply cannot drive anymore. Arizona is planning to investigate the introduction of such a digital driver’s license, the coalition agreement says.
