If you thought you wouldn’t get penalty points on your provisional driving license as a learner during a lesson, think again. Dorset-based student and novice motorist, Stacie Ralphes, just 17 at the time, found this out the hard way earlier this year when she received a fine for exceeding the speed limit during a driving class.
With just 12 hours’ motoring experience under her belt, she nevertheless reached 36mph in a 30mph zone during a lesson with a local driving school. She was caught in Weymouth as she was being instructed.
Stacie, who is studying health and social care, says she hadn’t been made aware of the fact that learner drivers can still be held liable for speeding tickets.
At the time, she was given the option to accept three penalty points on her license or attend speed awareness training. In the end, she decided to attend the speed awareness training instead of blemishing her newly acquired provisional permit.
Although she initially believed she would have to foot the £110 bill for this training herself, in the end her driving school agreed to pay this additional extra cost as a goodwill gesture.
Stacie told a local newspaper that at first she didn’t want to continue learning to drive, and that the incident had been a setback. But she is now continuing to learn to drive, albeit with a different school of motoring. Equally, the teens mother, 38-year-old single parent Beverley Riseboro, is calling for all new drivers to appreciate the rules of the road and to understand they could have to shoulder responsibility for any fines they might incur.
Understandably, at time when you are paying for your driving lessons, the last thing you want to face is further costs, or the prospect of blotting your motoring copybook before you have even got your motors running.
So perhaps this incident could serve as a timely reminder that if a motoring offence occurs, the person behind the wheel becomes liable for any resulting penalties.
Even for learners, it is illegal for anyone else to take the penalty.
