Over 2,100 driving tests had to be abandoned last year due to bad weather or drivers’ vehicles breaking down mid-test.
The 2020 Road Safety Authority (RSA) annual report shows the percentage rate of tests abandoned due to bad weather or vehicles breaking down mid-test more than doubled last year on 2019.
The figures show that last year 2,163 tests were abandoned and this is an increase of 15% or 277 on the 1,886 abandoned tests for 2019.
The percentage rate of driving tests abandoned last year was 2.1% compared to 0.9% in 2019.
The increase in the numbers of abandoned driving tests came in spite of the number of tests offered by the driving test service more than halving from 221,038 in 2019 to 102,673 last year.
Tests cancelled
In February of this year, the RSA admitted that 484 driving tests were cancelled in one week the same month for weather related reasons including unsafe conditions, ice and snow at test centres.
The annual report shows that a further 4,005 driving tests were not conducted in 2020 due to a vehicle not being roadworthy or the driver not having insurance, tax or a licence or ‘other’.
The national pass rate for driving tests was 52% for 2020 though there was a huge disparity between the highest and lowest test pass rates at the RSA’s test centre network.
Pass rates
The centre with the highest pass rate was Clifden, Galway at 71.4% and this compares to the lowest pass rate in the country where only one in every three candidates passed their test at Kilkenny (O’Loughlin Gaels) at 33.3%.
The pass rates at the two centres are to a large extent outliers - there are only two other test centres with a pass rate of higher than 65 per cent - Cavan - 68.4% and Monaghan 66.1%.
Kilkenny (O’Loughlin Gaels) had by far the lowest pass rate in the country - the next nearest was Finglas at 42.6% and Shannon and Churchtown at 44%.
Reasons for failing
In terms of why candidates failed their tests across the country, the most common factor was ‘positioning’ at 36% followed by vehicle control at 19%; observation at 12% and react/anticipate and rules/checks both at 8%.
The country’s driving test service suspended operations on March 13th 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resumed for trucks and buses on June 29th and for cars in July 2020.
The annual report states the service suspension “was due to the particular transmission risk involved in delivering this service, as the distance between the candidate and driver tester is less than one metre in most cases and the test occurs in an enclosed vehicle”.
The report states that “during this time we continued to deliver a limited number of tests for frontline workers”.
The service was again suspended this year due to Covid-19 restrictions and the RSA is currently dealing with a large backlog in tests.
