OTTO CARRINGTON
There will be no point deductions for traffic violations this month as the demerit system will come into effect on April 2, Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan said yesterday.
“I have asked for one month to continue the exercise to let us continue to going out there and actually showing the population that if you do this infringement now this is what is going to happen to you. You can lose eight points five-point or your drivers permit could be suspended and by the second of April this will be implemented,” Sinanan said, as he addressed a handing-over ceremony of mobile ticketing devices.
He added: “This is not about going out there and charging everybody, we want you to comply and get your records straight and this system will be a lot more friendly for all the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. If you get a ticket in one area in Trinidad you don’t have to go back to that area. If you get a ticket in Tobago you from Trinidad you don’t have to go back to pay for the ticket. This system is a lot more friendly for all the user’s nothing to be worried about it’s a new way that we are looking at enforcement in Trinidad and this enforcement is about saving lives.”
The Ministry of Works and Transport boasted that for 2020 there has been a seven per cent decrease in road fatalities with 2019 figures standing at 265 road fatalities to this year’s 118 fatalities.
A total of 300 devices were handed over the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, the Licensing Authority and Traffic Wardens.
“This puts on a par with any developed country in the world, this will transform the way we look at our roadways in Trinidad and Tobago but this is not about fines and penalties, this is a transformation of the licencing office that building that every Trinidadian dread to visit, this a transformation of that, it’s also a transformation on the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act where we are making that a lot more user-friendly,” Minister Sinanan reiterate.
He added: “Fines and penalties are not revenue earners. These are road safety initiatives I will be very happy if we could collect no money on fines cause it means everybody is complying with the law. If you have to collect revenue from fines for road infringement it means that the society is in a very bad place.”
Since the announcement, Transport Commissioner, Clive Clark said there has been an increase in citizens attempting to regularise their information and since then the authority has increased staff to deal with the influx.
The Ministry of Works and Transport will launch RF-ID license plates in the coming months, along with devices for dark tint and penalties for differently able parking.