The police in Perth has this marvelous system of keeping off potential traffic offenders from doing a traffic offense - the so-called Double Demerits.

When you get your driving license you have 12 merits. Depending upon the severity of a traffic offense, merits are taken off of your driving licence. For example if you drive above the permitted speed limit they take off one merit.

In Perth they have these huge electronic panels on large crossings which warn you normally that there is a traffic jam on another road. But on holidays, e.g. Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, etc. they warn you that they will charge you double demerits. This means that they take off the double amount of merits than they would normally do on workdays. Let’s assume that you normally loose three merits if you don’t stop at a red cross light. They would take off 6 merits during the holidays.

We discussed this system and we are not sure if it’s a good or a bad system. But it may really help prevent accidents from happening.