REGINA – A list released by SGI shows one driver in Saskatchewan has a significant lead in the list of drivers with the lowest Driver Safety Ratings.
The scores are part of the crown’s Safe Driver Recognition Program. The higher the score, the greater the savings on car insurance rates (up to 20 per cent). Convictions lower the rating.
For example, refusing to provide a breath sample can dock a driver 20 points.
No matter how low the rating goes, the basic insurance cost does not go up. However, financial penalties in the thousands of dollars can be laid.
According to Sandy Creighton, 90 percent of customers are on the positive side of the scale.
The driver with the lowest rating sits at -431.
The rest of the scores on the bottom ten list includes these ratings: -310, -300, -218, -205, -200, -196, -195, -177, -176.
SGI puts drivers with impaired driving convictions into special programs. Drivers with other convictions are put in the Driver Improvement Program.
No matter how low the score gets, it takes just three consecutive years with a clean record to get it upped to zero.
“So no collisions, no traffic tickets, no suspensions of any kind,” said Creighton.
The Regina Police Service hands out about 27,000 traffic tickets per year.
“I see a lot of those tickets come across my desk,” said Sgt. Ian Barr, whose police career has been focused on traffic for 13 years.
He said the people committing traffic offences isn’t exclusive to a certain segment of society – “Male, female, young, old, it doesn’t matter.”
Spencer McDonald, president of driver training program Thinking Driver, said there isn’t one simple solution to fixing bad driving habits.
“The third element, which is the most important, is attitudes, and it’s only when you’ve got all three of those elements functioning together – knowledge, skills, and attitudes – that we can really say someone is a good driver,” he said.
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