KINGSTON, Jamaica – Research has shown that there are some 3,000 motorists who regularly receive multiple tickets for road traffic breaches, according to Minister of National Security, Dr Horace Chang.

He made the disclosure while speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

While he did not state the category of drivers who continue to flout the law, it is well known that operators of public passenger vehicles – both bus and taxi drivers – are among those who receive dozens and, in some instances, hundreds of traffic tickets which remain unpaid.

During the last traffic ticket amnesty in 2017 a number of bus drivers posed for the cameras with their receipts after paying to settle hundreds of traffic tickets for significant sums.

Chang told the House that last year while he observed a demonstration of the handheld device that is now being used by the police to issue tickets and check motorists’ information, a driver who was randomly pulled over by a constable was found to have 500 outstanding tickets.

He implored motorists to settle all outstanding tickets by January 31 before the new digitised ticketing system is launched on February 1, the same day the new Road Traffic Act takes effect.

Meanwhile, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) issued a record total of 720, 694 tickets for road traffic breaches in 2022.

This compares to the 451,412 tickets that were issued by the police in 2021.

“This demonstrates the alertness of the JCF and their willingness to apprehend rogue motorists,” Chang said.

“Though the 37 per cent year-over-year increase is an indication that we have exponentially increased the JCF’s capacity to enforce, it is also a clear signal that there remains a high degree of lawlessness on our roadways. With the new Road Traffic Act and the digitised traffic ticketing system, we expect this to be effectively cauterised,” he noted.