Known as Miguel Angel M. G., he has so far lost a staggering fourteen points in as little as four months, for crimes ranging from drink driving to driving on the wrong side of the road.Anyone with a car will by now be aware that a crackdown is underway to improve drivers' behaviour and awareness, with the intention of reducing deaths from road traffic accidents. Electronic signs along the Avenida Mar????­tima in Las Palmas flash messages promoting road safety.

Other messages detail how many points can be lost through different examples of dangerous driving. Police stop careless motorists with a frequency that suggests zero tolerance.The established system, whereby people who broke the law were fined on the spot, the amount varying as to the seriousness of the crime, is still in operation. But since the revision of Spanish driving laws on July 1, a new points-based scheme also penalises people who break the law.

Every driving licence holder is allocated twelve points. Each infraction of the law results in points being deducted from their licence. Using a mobile phone while driving costs drivers three points. Those who drive without a seatbelt also risk losing three points. Jump the traffic lights and four points are removed from your licence. Drink drive and the penalty is anywhere between four and six points.  Once a driver has lost all twelve points on his licence, his licence is revoked for six months. To retrieve it he must take a rehabilitation course and pay 320 euros. His licence is returned with eight points on it.

Miguel Angel has lost more than his allocated twelve points because after losing his licence he flouted his driving restrictions and continued to drive dangerously. On October 31, he was caught by police performing drunken zig-zags in his Seat Ibiza in Calle Portugal whilst smoking a spliff. He was arrested and detained. Considering such behaviour, it is evident that the new rules and their strict consequences have taken time to sink in. Three months on from their introduction, 60,000 Spaniards have points on their licence, and 300 have followed Miguel Angel in losing the right to drive. The points scheme is now enjoying success, despite a few teething problems.

At the Centro de Informaci??n de la Direcci??n General de Trafico, Ismael Vasquez reported that thirty wrongdoers' every day have points removed from their licences. But are people in Gran Canaria noticing the effects of the law - are drivers being more cautious?At street level, nobody I spoke to admitted to having anything less than a full complement of points on their licence. However,  everyone had something to say about the change in the law. Some people thought that driving conditions in Las Palmas had improved since July 1.  Ram??n Delgado said: "There are fewer accidents now thanks to the scheme, and on our motorways you can tell people are driving with more care."

Others however had noticed little or no improvement in motoring practices. Juani Gonz?????lez said: "People here are driving exactly the same as they did before the law was passed. They don't care, they just do as they please." She added: "Dangerous drivers don't take any notice of the electronic signs - how can they when they're going at speeds of over 80 km per hour?" According to DGT statistics, since the introduction of the new law, traffic accidents throughout Spain have decreased by 10% in comparison with the same three-month period in 2005.

This translates to 150 lives saved as a result of the new measures. However, there is still a long way to go since, on a national scale, over 200 people died in road accidents last month alone. However, the preliminary indications of a reduced number of accidents in Spain only three months into the initiative is encouraging. Only time will tell whether drivers learn to curb their bad habits or will, like Miguel Angel, have their licence revoked. As the DGT slogan goes, it is a question of life and death.