Akash Sama­roo

& Kay-Marie Fletch­er

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has an­nounced that she will be scrap­ping the de­mer­it points sys­tem.

In­tro­duced by the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment gov­ern­ment in May 2020, the de­mer­it points sys­tem saw cer­tain traf­fic of­fences and traf­fic vi­o­la­tions car­ry­ing pre­scribed de­mer­it points in ad­di­tion to oth­er stip­u­lat­ed penal­ties. The points would range from two, which is gen­er­al­ly the min­i­mum, to 14, which is the max­i­mum.

Ac­cord­ing to the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic Act, any­one who ac­cu­mu­lates ten to 14 points with­in three years will be dis­qual­i­fied from hold­ing or ob­tain­ing a li­cence for six months. Any­one with 14 to 20 points can be dis­qual­i­fied from hold­ing or ob­tain­ing a li­cence for one year, and above 20 points means that a dri­ver is barred from hold­ing or ob­tain­ing a li­cence for two years.

In 2022, the sys­tem was mod­i­fied with points on­ly de­duct­ed for fail­ure to pro­duce a ve­hi­cle for in­spec­tion/dri­ving a ve­hi­cle with­out a valid in­spec­tion stick­er and cer­tifi­cate (six points) and park­ing in a pub­lic stand ap­point­ed for taxi (three points).

For­mer Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan said the pur­pose of the de­mer­it point sys­tem was not to pe­nalise dri­vers and earn rev­enue but to change the cul­ture of way­ward dri­ving.

He an­nounced in April, be­fore the gen­er­al elec­tion, that if re-elect­ed, the PNM gov­ern­ment will pass leg­is­la­tion so that dri­vers’ li­cences are not sus­pend­ed when too many de­mer­it points are ac­cu­mu­lat­ed. In­stead, er­rant dri­vers will have to pass a re­fresh­er course to be able to op­er­ate a ve­hi­cle once more.

Sinanan ad­mit­ted that some peo­ple com­plained about the cur­rent sys­tem.

“There have been some com­plaints or ob­ser­va­tions about the de­mer­it point sys­tem, that it’s been a bit too harsh. The min­istry has con­stant­ly been re­view­ing that. In 2022, we re­viewed it, in 2024, and a fur­ther re­view was done and has been ap­proved by Cab­i­net, where we are look­ing at not dis­qual­i­fy­ing you when you reach a cer­tain thresh­old.”

Speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that it will be scrapped as part of her new gov­ern­ment’s leg­isla­tive agen­da.

She said that Par­lia­ment will com­mence its new term some­time in May.

‘Obey the law’

Mean­while, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is warn­ing dri­vers that they will con­tin­ue to is­sue fixed penal­ties, in­clu­sive of de­mer­it points, to law­break­ers.

TTPS Road Safe­ty Co­or­di­na­tor PC Brent Bat­son told Guardian Me­dia last evening that un­til the law changes, the de­mer­it points sys­tem will re­main in place.

Bat­son said, “Un­til the law changes based on leg­isla­tive or min­is­te­r­i­al or­der, the sta­tus quo re­mains ... The TTPS is a crea­ture of law and what­ev­er poli­cies the leg­is­la­ture brings, our jobs are to en­force. The Min­istry of Works and Trans­port, now Works and In­fra­struc­ture, they are the ones that de­vel­op poli­cies and cer­tain laws for us to im­ple­ment, so we look for­ward to guid­ance.”

And the pres­i­dent of the road safe­ty non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tion Ar­rive Alive, Sharon In­gle­field, ap­pealed to all dri­vers to obey the law.

In­gle­field said over the last decade, there’s been a 50 per cent de­crease in road fa­tal­i­ties, and that’s thanks to road safe­ty plans that were in place.

In­gle­field said, “We ap­peal to all dri­vers to please obey the law as it ex­ists and make sure that you are in charge of your own safe­ty and that of your pas­sen­gers as well as oth­er road users, par­tic­u­lar­ly pedes­tri­ans. We’ve had a huge in­crease in pedes­tri­an fa­tal­i­ties in the last few years.”

Asked if she be­lieves the re­moval of the de­mer­it point sys­tem will in­crease road fa­tal­i­ty, she said on­ly time will tell, but she hoped it does not.

“Un­til the da­ta comes out, we’re not go­ing to know. Un­til we see the da­ta, be­cause we’re dri­ven by da­ta. We had a 50 per cent de­crease in the last decade...then we’ve had a slow in­crease every sin­gle year. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, a lot is hap­pen­ing in our coun­try, a change of think­ing, and we are fol­low­ing the mir­ror im­age of what is be­ing rec­om­mend­ed by the Unit­ed Na­tions, WHO (World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion) decade for Road Safe­ty, which ends in 2030, which ad­vis­es NGOs around the world, the glob­al NGO, that dri­vers must pay the con­se­quences of their ac­tions if they are reck­less on a na­tion’s roads. So, we re­al­ly do hope that this would not in­crease the num­ber of fa­tal crash­es on a na­tion’s roads,” she added.