Dear Editor,

It is with guarded optimism that I welcome news that the Police Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) has, over the last two weeks, arrested five drivers of public passenger vehicles who, cumulatively, had close to 2,600 unpaid traffic tickets.

I also note, with satisfaction, that two of the five have already had their day in court, been slapped with fines totalling over $400,000, and had their drivers’ licences suspended for three years.

Well done, PSTEB. You are finally delivering some of the results we hoped for at your formation. You would have been justified to hold a press conference at any intersection to announce a teachable moment to motorists.

It is not surprising that one of the drivers who accumulated 1,000 unpaid tickets was remanded in custody to await trial for other offences, as accumulation of that many unpaid tickets is indicative of a total disregard for the law.

I am hoping that this is the beginning of a new approach to addressing the anarchy on our roads and not just the eye of the storm. I look forward to more arrests, prosecutions, and suspensions of licences in a sustained campaign to restore sanity to the roads.

Permit me to offer the following suggestions as my contribution to the effort:

• Judges should consider revoking the drivers’ licences of the most egregious offenders.

• Transport Authority should blacklist some drivers from operating in the public transportation sector.

• General insurance companies should consider maintaining a database of serial traffic offenders to whom insurance coverage is denied as a public service.

• PSTEB must ensure maximum publicity for arrests and prosecution of lawless drivers.

I like the approach of new head of PSTEB Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr Kevin Blake. It appears to be speak quietly, stay away from the cameras, and carry a big stick.

My only recommendation to ACP Dr Kevin Blake is the inclusion in press releases of the period from which traffic tickets were accumulated. That bit of information could really drive home the severity of the problem.

I recently opined motorists stood a better chance of being eaten by a dinosaur than to be brought to book for a breach of the law. I am pleased the odds of being brought to book have been increasing.

Wayne Plummer

wayne.r.plummer@gmail.com