Police could seize cars driven by minors
POLICE spokesman Demetris Demetriou yesterday confirmed plans for a bill that would allow police to confiscate and auction off vehicles illegally driven by minors.
Demetriou said the bill, which has been put to the House of Representatives and has already been approved by the Road Safety Council, aims to clamp down on the increasing number of traffic accidents and road deaths involving youngsters.
“If passed, this new law will allow police to confiscate the vehicle initially and then to auction it off in cases of repeat offenders,” he told the Sunday Mail.
Demetriou explained minors very often continued to drive cars and mopeds despite having been already caught by the police.
“This way, they won’t be given back the vehicles,” he said.
According to traffic police, the involvement of minors in traffic accidents is very high and in some cases lives have been lost.
As the law stands today, only the owner of the vehicle is held criminally responsible when a minor is caught driving it. However, a number of youngsters persist on taking the vehicles irrespective of whether they have their parents’ consent or not.
How is this going to work? Most of these vehicle are purchased by their parents, their parents/family car and registered in ther parents names. Surely they won't be able to sell them off without their approval. How about actually punishing these offenders rather than a slap on the wrist and their parents too for leaving a vehicle in a tempting situation.[/quote]
