The National Road Safety Committee will launch a nationwide pilot driving licence point deduction programme from Sept 1, 2022, before it is fully implemented on Jan 1, 2023. - PPP
PHNOM PENH (The Phnom Penh/Asia News Network): The National Road Safety Committee (NRSC) will launch a nationwide pilot driving licence point deduction programme from Sept 1, 2022, before it is fully implemented on Jan 1, 2023, along with the payment of transitional fines for violations of the road traffic law using database technology.
According to a notification from the NRSC on Aug 9, this programme will be carried out in accordance with articles 43 and 44 of the Law on road traffic, and in compliance with an Inter-Ministerial Prakas dated April 27, 2020, on penalties for violating the road traffic law and another Inter-Ministerial Prakas dated Sept 14, 2021, on Procedures for Revocation and Re-scoring of driving licences.
In order to increase the efficiency of the enforcement of the road traffic law and to reduce road accidents to the minimum, as well as to make it easier for people to pay fines and ensure transparency in transitional penalties, the NRSC will start the process of deducting driver’s licence points and imposing transitional fines for violations, under management of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Public Works and Transport.
The new programme will be tested in trials across the country from September 1 onwards before it will be fully implemented on Jan 1, 2023.
The same notification continued that deduction of driver’s licence points and the transitional penalty for violations of the road traffic law will be carried out automatically through technological means to record information stored in a database system.
Therefore, all drivers should carry their licence with them to provide to the authorities who will use it to monitor and implement the deduction of points in case of violations of the law on road traffic.
According to the notice, for transitional fines for road traffic violations, payment can be made at TrueMoney counters or TrueMoney agents or through the TrueMoney Mobile App in addition to direct payments at the road traffic police departments.
Kim Pagna, country director of the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, told The Post on Aug 9 that the launch of the driver’s licence point deduction programme, if properly implemented by authorities, would contribute to reducing accidents in the country because nations around the world also have used similar systems with good results.
He added that in Cambodia, this programme has been available since 2007’s Law on Road Traffic, but because the Kingdom has had some challenges related to technological systems before it has just started testing in 2022.
However, he suggested that the tests on this should be done on national roads, especially any road that has a high number of serious traffic accidents, in order to test whether the practice is effective or not.
“Before implementing it, we should have a wide-ranging education effort aimed at the people who use the roads so that they do know about it and make sure there is no clash between authorities and drivers, because if there are negative public reactions to it and we stop implementing it then we’ve failed, and this will improve safety if it is successful,” he said.
