New Traffic Laws

South African road users must rectify bad behaviour, respect the rules of the road and take traffic offences more seriously as the national roll-out of the new AARTO (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) system looms closer.

So says Dial Direct Insurance’s spokesperson, Bradley Du Chenne.

“AARTO significantly ups the stakes of breaking the rules of the road, which is necessary for addressing the high rate of non-compliance with road traffic rules by South African road users. We believe that stiffer fines and greater penalties will encourage greater compliance with the law,” says Du Chenne, adding that over 90% of accidents on South African roads are preceded by a traffic violation

AARTO is a new system aimed at discouraging road traffic contraventions. It was approved by Parliament in 1998 and was implemented on a pilot basis in the municipal area of Tshwane in July 2008. It has since been extended to the municipal area of Johannesburg and implementation in the rest of Gauteng is expected during 2009. AARTO will then be rolled-out nationally.

AARTO introduces improved fine collection procedures and the revenue generated from fines will be used to improve road safety. The programme also introduces more convenient ways of paying fines and greater penalties for not paying on time.

AARTO brings parity of fines across municipal and provincial borders to ensure that penalties are consistent nationally. What this means is that drivers will face the same penalties for committing a particular traffic violation whether the offence was committed in Johannesburg or Kuruman

But, most notably for the road-using public is the introduction of the points demerit system whereby road users will receive demerit points against their names for each violation they commit. Each offence carries a weighting and is allocated a certain number of points, with the more serious offences carrying the highest number of points. Driving on the wrong side of the road for instance will earn an offender 3 demerit points while failing to use indicators will result in 1 point against their name.

Repeat offenders accumulate points against their names until they reach the maximum of 12 points. Every point after this mark results in a three-month suspension of the licence and licences are cancelled after the third suspension.

One demerit point is removed from the driver’s record for every three months that go by without a contravention so offenders can reduce the number of demerits they have against their names by abiding by the law

“Once the new system is in place, the stakes will be higher than they have ever been. We urge motorists to start behaving responsibly and take the rules of the road seriously in order to avoid accumulating demerit points which could result in them losing their licences,” concludes Du Chenne.

Motorists wanting to know more about AARTO, the points demerit system and penalties for violations should visit www.aarto.co.za.