94RedSiGal
Senior Member
And they were far worse than Boston drivers too. lol. B)
Manic Drivers Discover the Slow Lane
Sep 25, 10:51 am ET
ROME (Reuters) - Driving at crazy speeds with screeching tires and blaring horns may be a national sport in Italy, but new license rules mean manic drivers may soon become an endangered species. New road safety regulations that allow the state to strip traffic offenders of their driving licenses are revolutionizing many Italians' once-cavalier attitudes to the highway code.
"The new license is changing patterns of behavior that we thought were ingrained," Italy's venerable head of state, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, said this month.
With 6,682 deaths and 334,679 injuries on the road in 2001, Italy has one of the worst road safety records in Europe.
Battling to improve that record, the government rushed in a points countdown system before the summer holidays, when millions of Italians take to the road and on the worst days dozens die in motorway pile-ups.
Under the new rules, drivers lose points for each traffic offence, and when all the points are gone, so is the license.
According to Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi, road deaths dropped by 35 percent during the summer compared with the same period last year, thanks to the new system.
"I used to go over the speed limit all the time, but this summer I was careful not to do it," said Giorgio Faruggia, a grocer in central Rome who recently returned from a vacation in the southern region of Puglia.
Buoyed by the summer statistics, consumer groups are pressing insurance companies to lower premiums for drivers who keep a clean record, and the transport minister has thrown his weight behind the idea.
Lunardi has also announced that scooter drivers will soon be subjected to the points countdown too. Even teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18, who can zip around city centers on small scooters without a permit, will have to obtain a "mini-license" as part of the crackdown.
Manic Drivers Discover the Slow Lane
Sep 25, 10:51 am ET
ROME (Reuters) - Driving at crazy speeds with screeching tires and blaring horns may be a national sport in Italy, but new license rules mean manic drivers may soon become an endangered species. New road safety regulations that allow the state to strip traffic offenders of their driving licenses are revolutionizing many Italians' once-cavalier attitudes to the highway code.
"The new license is changing patterns of behavior that we thought were ingrained," Italy's venerable head of state, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, said this month.
With 6,682 deaths and 334,679 injuries on the road in 2001, Italy has one of the worst road safety records in Europe.
Battling to improve that record, the government rushed in a points countdown system before the summer holidays, when millions of Italians take to the road and on the worst days dozens die in motorway pile-ups.
Under the new rules, drivers lose points for each traffic offence, and when all the points are gone, so is the license.
According to Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi, road deaths dropped by 35 percent during the summer compared with the same period last year, thanks to the new system.
"I used to go over the speed limit all the time, but this summer I was careful not to do it," said Giorgio Faruggia, a grocer in central Rome who recently returned from a vacation in the southern region of Puglia.
Buoyed by the summer statistics, consumer groups are pressing insurance companies to lower premiums for drivers who keep a clean record, and the transport minister has thrown his weight behind the idea.
Lunardi has also announced that scooter drivers will soon be subjected to the points countdown too. Even teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18, who can zip around city centers on small scooters without a permit, will have to obtain a "mini-license" as part of the crackdown.
