FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Commander of the Public Safety and Transport Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Calvin Allen has disclosed that over 100,000 motorists have been prosecuted for various road traffic breaches since the start of the year.

He added that persons not wearing seatbelts or helmets accounted for the lion’s share of the breaches.

“In the first two-and-a-half months of 2019 we have prosecuted over 100,000 breaches of the Road Traffic Act. And, when I did the deeper analysis for it, hundreds of these prosecutions were for persons not wearing seatbelts or protective helmets. So these are activities that we will have to continue. Some persons are really not taking heed, so we have to go the route of serious and robust enforcement to get them to do what is the proper thing,” ACP Allen argued.

Yesterday, scores of motorists in Falmouth, Trelawny were prosecuted by members of a team from the PSTEB, who were accompanied by motor vehicle examiners from the Island Traffic Authority, who paid an impromptu visit to the burgeoning tourism resort town, which had two cruise ships in the port and a number of vendors and shoppers at the popular Bend Down market.

“A number of prosecutions have been done as a number of vehicles have been found to be defective. We are with the Island Traffic Authority examiners and so several registration plates have been removed from vehicles which have been found to be defective,” ACP Allen revealed.

“We have also removed tints from vehicles that have been tinted illegally so these are activities which will continue.”

He noted that the police will be paying close attention to the Falmouth bypass where an increasing number of motorists have been found to be breaching the Road Traffic Act.

“Trelawny bypass is part of the area that we will be doing operational activities as we seek to curtail the behavioural pattern. One of the things we have found out is that whilst the Trelawny bypass is a good stretch of road, most of the collisions that have occurred there is because of improper overtaking or excessive speeding. So these are bad driving practices that our presence will treat with,” he explained.

He welcomed the news that traffic lights are to be installed at the section of the road that leads off the Northern Coastal Highway towards Daniel Town.

“Signage overall across the island is needed. We have a good relationship with the National Works Agency, and so at it relates to a traffic lights, especially in Trelawny, it is something that we welcome and look forward to. We have no doubt that that will improve the regulation of traffic along those corridors,” ACP Allen said.

Head of the traffic department in the Trelawny Police Division, Sergeant Paul Aitkinson, revealed that motorcyclists account for four of the eight road fatalities recorded in the parish since the start of the year.