Parliament approves amendments to fixed penalties in the Road Traffic Act

Fixed penalties for offences under the Road Traffic Act are to be updated following the approval of this change to the legislation in both Houses of Parliament on Friday (November 5).

The Road Traffic (Amendment, Validation and Indemnity) Bill, 2021 was passed without amendments during a marathon special sitting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Minister of Transport and Mining, Hon. Robert Montague, who piloted the Bill in the Lower House, noted that Section 116 of the Road Traffic Act, 1938, provides that the Minister may by Order, amend the appendix to make changes to fixed penalties.

“An injunction was granted by the Supreme Court (on November 3), restraining the government from imposing certain fixed penalties. This Bill seeks to amend the Road Traffic Act to provide for updating of the fixed penalties,” he said.

The second of the two clauses of the Bill seeks to amend the third schedule of the Principal Act by deleting the appendix in order to increase the quantum of fixed penalties for offences under the Act.

In closing the debate on the Bill in the Senate, Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, noted that the intent of the Bill is to ensure the preservation of order and certainty on the streets of Jamaica.

Essentially, she noted, the Bill will provide traffic police with “the tools…they need to continue to do the work that they do in seeking to have our citizens obey the law and to provide consequences where they do not.”

Mrs. Johnson Smith further explained that the figures which have been included in the Bill are not increased fines, but are penalties which have been in place since 2006 and 2007 respectively “and therefore the intent is to preserve what has been in place.”

These penalties were established by provisional tax orders signed by former Minister of Finance, Omar Davies.