Unfortunately not, it's taken as a right nowadays. Here's a recent case where a provisionally licensed driver (who had previously been found guilty of a hit and run, as it happens) struck and killed a pedestrian. Surely worthy of losing the license, maybe a couple of points, possibly a spell in prison? Nah, just a €500 fine. The car behind her saw the pedestrian, and anticipated her stopping, but nope, she didn't brake until she hit the pedestrian. Her defence?
This is the kind of shit we have on our roads
FWIW:
Stopped by police - Regularly stopped by unmarked traffic corps, simply because of the car, maybe once a fortnight at the moment. Nothing ever comes of these stops, it's just a stop to look at license and insurance.
Use mobile while driving - Yes, I text occasionally. I realise it's illegal and I shouldn't, but it's habit. To my knowledge it hasn't affected my driving so far, it's generally just when I'm stopped in traffic or at the lights or whatever. If I absolutely have to take a call, it goes on loudspeaker and the phone goes on the dash.
Made an insurance claim for an accident (my fault) - Nope
Made an insurance claim for an accident (twasn't me) - Yes, car pulled out in front of me on a main road, needing half a new front end. Found in my favour after many weeks of insurance assessors and solicitors.
Ran a red light in the past 12 months - Yes, regularly if I'm going home in the early hours. Outside of the city where there's maybe two cars an hour, I refuse to wait for a light to change. They should be purely sensor driven when traffic is that quiet.
Driven the wrong way down a one-way-street - No, the only one-ways near me are major inner-city routes. Driving the wrong way down them at any time would be impossible.
Hit a stationary object while parking - Apart from purposely bumping into friends' cars top gear style, nope.
Accidentally clipped a car but kept quiet - Never, I'd always leave a note even if I did.
Take risks (overtaking, fast acceleration) - Overtaking, generally not unless I'm overtaking something painfully slow though. I do quite enjoy putting the boot down off the lights and such occasionally, but I'd hardly class fast acceleration as a risk.
Suffer road rage - Sometimes, if someone purposely drives like an ass.
Speeding - At least once a day, speed limits are in dire need of review in certain places. I'm quite capable of knowing when it's "safe" to speed however. I don't like the term speeding either, going above the speed limit does not mean "speeding". Speeding is travelling too fast for the conditions. Speed limits don't change with traffic, weather and time of day.
Scare others while driving - Passengers, occasionally, if it's a good friend on a deserted road or car park. I also enjoy terrifying pikeys with backfiring however, but they don't count as people per se.
Attempts to pass driving test -1
Number of prangs (i.e. Collisions/crashes) in the past 12 months - None
Sim/non-sim racer before getting a driving licence - LFS for 3 years before I started driving.
Years driven - 3
