MOTORCYCLISTS who have for years exploited the system by driving indefinitely on a provisional (learners’) licence will soon be forced to obtain a permanent licence or face the law.

This is one of the areas to be addressed by the amended Road Traffic Act now before Parliament.

The current law does not require a person to get a motorcycle drivers’ licence, and many motorcyclists simply continue to renew their learners’ licence for as long as they wish.

“Currently a man can just buy a learners’ licence, and then ride his bike until a year’s time when that licence expires and just keep renewing it. Therefore, he never has a bike licence. Even though you’re required by law to have your motorcycle registered and licensed, hardly any of that is being done,” Dr Morais Guy, minister without portfolio for transport, works and housing, told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, following the launch of the National Road Safety Council’s road safety campaign at the Half Way Tree Transport Centre.

The police are concerned that lack of training and proper licensing, and the

non-use of helmets, continue to contribute to motor-cycle- related fatalities, which reached 69 last year.

Head of the Police Traffic Division Senior Superintendent Calvin Allen said a public education campaign will have to be conducted to educate motorcyclists. He pointed out that in the current situation, the police can only issue a ticket if a motorcycle driver holds a provisional licence, but is seen carrying a pillion passenger.

SSP Allen explained that under the new regime, “riders” including those who use motorcycles in their occupation, will have to go through formal training and be passed by an examiner to obtain their licences.

This is not the first time this issue is being raised. From as far back as 2011, Auditor General Pamela Munroe Ellis, in her 2009/10 report told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that motorcycle drivers were abusing the provisions of the Road Traffic Act that allowed them to drive a motorcycle without a motorcycle driver’s licence.

The report said that as a result, these drivers are “authorised” to drive although they are not certified competent by the Traffic Authority. Munroe-Ellis lamented that the situation persists because the Road Traffic Act allows an individual to drive a motorcycle without a motorcycle driver’s licence, once they have a valid learner’s licence.

Furthermore, the law does not require operators of these vehicles to drive with the usual supervision that is mandated for a “learner” driving a motor car.

Meanwhile, the police intend to put more pressure on motorcycle taxi operators in western Jamaica.

SSP Allen said already dozens of motorcycles have been seized. “The drivers of those motorcycles are not only lacking in terms of having prescribed licence, but the vehicle is generally not registered, no insurance, nothing. Even some of the crashes that we have seen down there is because of the inexperience of these persons who have not been properly trained to drive the motorcycle. They just find themselves with some cash, buy a bike and start riding,” the senior traffic cop said.