Posted online: Nov 4th, 2009

By Lauren Harte, reporter
Motorists in Donegal clocked up 5,595 penalty points last year, new figures have shown. Males were the biggest offenders on the road raking up 4,292 points compared to females who collected 1,303.
A total of 2,912 points were issued to male drivers in the county in 2008 for speeding with 967 issued to females, making this the most common offence followed by driving while using a mobile phone, not wearing a seatbelt and crossing over the white line.
Overall, 1,247,284 penalty points were issued to drivers around the country by last December since the scheme began in October, 2002. During 2008, 318,931 penalty points were issued representing a decrease of 2% on the previous year. Of these 76% were issued to males and 24% to females.
The findings were contained in the Transport Report for 2008 from the Central Statistics Office which also reveals that there were 81,883 vehicles licensed in the county by 31st December last of which 58,565 were cars and 14,820 were goods vehicles.
There were also 4,465 new vehicles licensed in Donegal last year while the total number of driving licences in the county was 94,732 representing 85,707 full licences and 9,025 learner permits. The largest number of driving licences in Donegal are held by those in the 30-39 age group at 19,349 followed by 17,128 to those aged 40-49 and 14,232 are held by those in the 50-59 age bracket.
The number of people in Donegal who passed their test in 2008 was 3,305. Of these 1,011 were females and 965 were males. Waiting times for those wishing to sit their test at a test centre in Donegal have greatly reduced from 2004 to last year, according to the CSO. In 2004, learner drivers had to wait 35 weeks to sit their test in Donegal Town which was reduced to seven in 2008. It was a similar story in Letterkenny where the waiting time five years ago was 45 weeks – down to nine weeks last year.