MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Opposition spokesperson on transport and works Mikael Phillips says that without enforcement the new Road Traffic Act will not address the carnage on Jamaica’s roads.

“It is a bit disappointing to hear the [Transport] Minister [Audley Shaw] and the Prime Minister [Andrew Holness] saying that the new Road Traffic Act itself is going to solve our problems, it is going to bring those who use the road into line. Let me just remind Jamaicans that 90 per cent of what is in the new Road Traffic Act is actually in the old Act; if there is not enforcement of the law then the new Road Traffic Act will come to naught,” he told journalists on Thursday in Wilderness district (west of Mile Gully community).

In a press release, the Office of the Prime Minister said Holness told a meeting of the National Road Safety Council on Thursday, “it is essential that order on our roads be addressed as a matter of urgency, an issue with which the new Road Traffic Act will treat”.

Phillips reiterated that there will need to be enforcement of the new Road Traffic Act when it is implemented.

“…We are seeing the highest amount of deaths on our roadways this year. That is not only going to be cauterised by just an Act of Parliament or Acts coming into being, but it is going to take a concerted effort of everyone taking responsibility of the use of the roadway, it is going to take Government in dealing with the hot spots,” he said.

He also pointed to the unsatisfactory state of some roads across the country.

“We know where the hot spots are; it makes no sense we say that persons should slow down but then the roadways are not in a condition that will save lives,” he said.

Phillips is encouraging road users to be cautious.

“… Each time you take a life, it is not only that person that dies but the family that is affected by death on our roadways. It is pressuring to the hospitals, it is pressuring to families, and 450 [road fatalities] in one year is 450 too many and we need to do something more than what we are doing now in cauterising the deaths on our roadways,” he said.

Phillips said he supports the Government’s decision to provide a clean slate for motorists who pay up outstanding traffic tickets before February 1, 2023.

“I think that the Government has given the best option it has in its arsenal — it should not be seen as an amnesty. I think what the [taxi] operators asked for is some time to pay the outstanding tickets but at the same time I would say to the operators that, ‘There is no need for you to amass so many tickets.’ If it is that the Government feel that it is a way in bringing in revenue then it is a different matter,” said Phillips.

“What would end up happening is that there are some operators that when the new Road Traffic Act comes into being will end up losing their driver’s licence, and I think this is a way of cleaning up the system,” he added.