Nearly 800,000 traffic tickets and over 30,000 warrants have been issued for delinquent motorists this year, according to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Delroy Chuck.

Stating that one-third of the 776,000 traffic tickets remain unpaid, Chuck repeated his warning for offending motorists to settle their obligation or risk being arrested. He made the appeal on Thursday as he addressed the commissioning service for justices of the peace at Lighthouse Assembly at Garbally Drive in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Declaring that Jamaica’s main thoroughfares have become parking lots during peak hours, Chuck appealed for workplaces to stagger the working hours of employees to help with reducing the traffic congestion.

He noted that the Government has instituted a flexi-work policy and he committed to instructing those responsible for the management of his ministry to move to stagger the work hours of ministry staff where practical. The minister spoke to the issue in the context of rampant indiscipline on the nation’s roads.

He lamented that the misbehavior on the roads is part of what he described as the “normalisation of wrongdoing” besetting the society.

“When people engage in wrongdoing they feel they must get a bligh and you see it on the road. The police have a hard job to keep order on the roads [and] people cut in front of you, people break stop signs, people race”.

Chuck said he was not denying that things are rough on the roads with traffic jams. He said the government has been encouraging its agencies and departments to have staggered working hours “because between 7:30 and 8:30/9 [ in the mornings] the roads are car parks, it really don’t make sense”.

The minister said he sympathised with motorists trying to move out of the line to get to work or take their children to school on time.

“So I will be urging the ministries and business places to look at how they can stagger the working hours,” he said while sharing that he has tasked his own permanent secretary to stagger the working hours so some employees could get to work at 6:00am and leave earlier. Others arriving later for work could go up to 7:00pm.

Chuck said such arrangements would help to ease the parking lots on the roads “because that is what we have between 7:00am and 9:00am and between 5:00pm and 7:00pm everyday”.

He warned that while steps are taken to address the longstanding problem, “motorists must obey the rules of the road”. “You cannot inconvenience others and behave disorderly on the roads,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chuck warned motorists for whom warrants have been issued that they can be arrested on the spot.

-Lynford Simpson