More than one-in-five Kilkenny drivers have clocked up penalty points: new figures

MORE than one out of every five Kilkenny motorists have clocked up penalty points on their licence.

New figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal a total of 15,019 (20.4%) local drivers had points on their license in 2017.

This is higher than the national average of one-in-six drivers who were recorded as having penalty points during the same period.

Overall a total of 189,095 penalty point endorsement notices were issued across the country, a decrease of 4.9% on the previous year. Almost seven out of every 10 (67.8%) of the penalty point endorsement notices issued in 2017 were for speeding offences.

According to the CSO figures the country’s worst drivers are in neighbouring Wexford, where 21.5% of drivers had penalty points recorded in the same period, followed by Galway (20.5%), with Kilkenny and Kildare joint third highest.

In the South East, Kilkenny was followed by Carlow (18.5%) and Waterford (18%).