Less than two months after welcoming the news that the Jamaican Parliament had approved a new Road Traffic Act, Jamaicans are now learning that its implementation could be delayed indefinitely. Read about the New Act and what it means for motorists by following this link:
See Also: DRIVING IN JAMAICA NEW RULES FOR 2019: What visitors and locals must know about using the roads
The Reason? The relevant authorities do not have in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure and enforce collection of fines and other penalties imposed for traffic rules violations. Remember now that at the heart of the proposed new regulations are the ‘pocket breaking’ fines that would be imposed on offending road users which were meant to be the main deterrent to breaking the law.
None of this is speculation as this ticketing issue was openly revealed in recent public Parliamentary Committee discussions.
The Problem
It appears that the Traffic Ticket Management System (TTMS) is so riddled with inaccuracies that the justice system is unable to rely on the information it provides to the courts to effectively prosecute offenders if and when they are brought to court.
GLEANER HEADLINE:
‘Ministry blasts traffic ticket system as unreliable – Justice ministry levels scathing criticisms at police traffic structure’
(Gleaner story January 17, 2019)
The statistics as revealed in Parliament tell the full story: the number of outstanding traffic tickets in the National Security Ministry’s database stands at 309,608 for the period November 2010 to December 2018. However, the number on the Justice Ministry’s system for the period January 2010 to December 2018 was 988,338. OK, so there is a 10-month difference in the reporting period but a discrepancy of 688,730 in the figures? How is that possible?
The simple explanation given by the Justice Ministry’s statistician is that the Traffic Ticket Management System is a police system that is NOT equipped to serve the needs of the courts both from a reporting and case-tracking perspective. The result is that data which may or may not have been updated at the revenue collection agencies are not adequately reflected in the TTMS and within the courts. As a consequence judges tend to exercise caution in issuing warrants for whom the police say are recalcitrant offenders because of the unreliability of the information.
How to solve the problem?
This is the task of Tax Administration Jamaica(TAJ). They must now co-ordinate the integration of the various processes to create one reliable system for the police, the fee collection agencies and the courts. This is not an easy task. TAJ is in effect being asked to find an effective solution in a few months for a problem that has been in existence for more than a decade. By their own statistics, the police reveal that between 2010 and 2018 they issued in excess of four (4)million tickets with a value of J$8.1 billion. Of this number 56% or J$2.2 million tickets valued at J$4.2 billion have been paid. This means that about 1.2 million tickets worth J$2.4 billion remain unpaid and are still before the courts. In 2018 alone, hundreds of motorists were able to ignore close to 90% of the over 65,000 traffic tickets issued by the police in the first half of the year without any consequences!
‘Below 300’
But there are consequences, albeit of a different kind, in the form of hundreds of road fatalities and serious injuries that place unnecessary strain on the country’s fragile and already overburdened health care system.
The National Road Safety Council which has been carrying on a relentless but seemingly vain campaign for motorist to exercise more discipline on the roads has gone to social media with its slogan ‘below 300’ presumably aimed at keeping road fatalities under 300 in 2019. Jamaica Global Online invites readers to visit and like the page and join the Council in sensitizing fellow Jamaicans to the need for greater discipline on the roads.
With a fatality number for every day of the new calendar year so far, the message appears to be having little impact. We need the new Road Traffic Act implemented and quickly!
