2003 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Col�iste Choilm, Cork
Jane Layton, Sin�ad Murphy & Miriam O'Keeffe
What's the point?

Jane Layton, Sin�ad Murphy & Miriam O'Keeffe at the Exhibition

Our project, 'What's the Point?' was triggered by the lack of information the people had and the lack of information available on the penalty points system for car drivers, and also the fact that we thought the system was quite open to controversy. We set out to investigate various aspects of this system; how well it could work, the opinions of Irish people on it, what information was available on this topic, and to discover the rights of the insurance companies.

We gathered the necessary information through e-mails and the Internet; through the media - newspapers, television and radio; we phoned numerous organisations looking for data. We also interviewed a young English driver who was living in the UK where the system is currently in place. Our main method for gathering information was surveying. We compiled a pilot survey and then a revised survey. Our pilot survey was filled out simply by our close family and friends, while our revised survey was filled out by employees in EMC, a computer company on the outskirts of Ballincollig. Our final method for data collection was letter writing. We wrote to several organisations asking if they had any facts or information that could be of help to us.

Through our research we compiled some results and conclusions, which confirmed our previous beliefs. We found that there had been a drastic reduction in road fatalities since the penalty point system was introduced in Ireland. In the year 2001, 411 died on Irish roads compared to 375 in 2002. There is, what we can see, a significant reduction in speeding on Irish roads also.

We discovered that many of the people we surveyed thought that the previous system was not enforced enough (57%) and thought that Irish drivers, in general, do not obey the rules of the road (79%). We also discovered that the vast majority of those we surveyed thought that a points system would be more effective than the previous system (77%).

Due to the difficulty we encountered by searching for information and the results from our surveys, we have drawn the conclusion that there is a distinct lack of information and general confusion on the topic.

Our research shows that a lot of Irish drivers agree with us in thinking that insurance companies are going to abuse the system and raise insurance premiums of drivers who receive points. T�naiste Mary Harney has established organisations to investigate these insurance companies.



Jane Layton, Sin�ad Murphy & Miriam O'Keeffe entered their project in the Junior Group Section in the Social and Behavioural Sciences Category at the Esat BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in January 2003. They won a special award sponsored by the National Safety Council.
Their teacher was Ms Rosemary Murphy.

This article was sponsored by the National Safety Council