Dear Editor,

Transport, Works and Housing Minister Dr Omar Davies is reported in the Observer of Monday, June 8, 2015 to have said that debate on proposed changes to the Road Traffic Act will get underway in the House of Representatives during June. Notable among these were increased fines for motorists cited by the police for speeding: the fines for motorists exceeding the limit by 16 to 32 kilometres being $6,000; between 33 and 49 kilometres, $10,000; and over 50 kilometres, $15,000.

Speaking at the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA) Road Safety Month launch, at Angels, St Catherine, last week, Dr Davies cited concerns which have been raised by several stakeholders about the rationale for the proposed increases. “They are measures meant to increase the level of discipline on the roads, and to reduce (the number of) accidents, and fatalities, which are avoidable. You don’t have to pay those fines, if you obey the rules,” he said.

Mr Minister, please revise the rules so that they can be respected. Speed limits of 50km/hr on urban roads may be reasonable, but the same limit on dual carriageways and open highways is not reasonable. These undermine respect for regulations and laws by normally law-abiding citizens. They also misdirect our too few police officers away from the enforcement of breaches which more often cause traffic crashes, eg, tailgating, dangerous overtaking, losing control, failure to signal lane changes, weaving in and out of traffic, etc, as cited in the statistics. It is worrying that increasing revenue to Government appears to be a major goal. The weak enforcement of current traffic regulations is the problem. Increasing traffic fines does not suitably address that problem.

Dr Orville D Nembhard, in a letter ‘Road crashes — who’s at fault?’ published in The Gleaner of July 17, 2015, wrote: “The physical, social and legal environment needs to be reflected on in the causes of road crashes. Defective vehicles, the state of our road surfaces or lighting need to be factored in. Hot spot identification needs more scrutiny. We built the roads, set the speed limits, the crossings, so we created the hot spot.” He refers to a principle from occupational health, “It is far more beneficial to engineer away a hazard than to rely on the user to be more careful.” Dr Nembhard suggested that the indiscriminate stopping by route taxis, etc, could be an example of our legal and enforcement environment failing us in allowing the proliferation of these vehicles and their driving habits… “We each have to take individual responsibility for our actions on the road. However, it can’t be that all the ills of the road traffic environment rest on the road users.”

Strong leadership is needed to change dysfunctional regulations. Officials usually have a strong faith in the correctness of their rules and tend to increase penalties rather than modify their rules. I pray that the parliamentary committee evaluating the proposed changes will produce legislation which Jamaicans can respect.

Peter Piper

St Andrew