PM Urges Motorists to Take Advantage of Extended Traffic Ticket Amnesty

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is imploring motorists to take advantage of the extended traffic ticket amnesty, which will begin on November 27.

This is a continuation of the previous amnesty, which ran from August 2 to October 31.

“An amnesty is not only a revenue-collection method. The reason why we put in the amnesty is that we believe we are now at a stage in (our operations to be able to) identify persons; properly account for the tickets, including the penalties; and properly integrate with the court system to be able to effectively enforce tickets,” the Prime Minister said.

He was addressing a ceremony to launch the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Road Safety Hub at its Traffic and Highway Division in downtown Kingston on Wednesday (November 15).

Mr. Holness noted that with almost 500,000 tickets being issued by the police each year, and low compliance in paying outstanding fines, the Government has been putting measures in place to better enforce the law in relation to such breaches.

He noted that these measures include strengthening the existing Road Traffic Act to reflect stricter penalties for infringements.

“After the amnesty is over, the direction to the police will be zero tolerance of infractions of the Road Traffic Act,” he said.

The Prime Minister noted that in granting back-to-back amnesties, the Government is giving citizens an opportunity to become compliant before the law comes into effect.

“What we want to do is to encourage Jamaicans to be law-abiding,” he said.

“We are being fair. Before we move from a phase of low enforcement to high enforcement, we give people a chance to set their affairs in order,” he added.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister assured that the Government is working to have the Bill passed by December this year.

“I give my full commitment to do my best to have it passed before this year is out. It’s still not too late; we have a couple of sittings still left to go, and maybe we will have to sit more than once a week to get it done,” he noted.

He informed that one of the reasons for the delay in the passage of the Bill is to accommodate the inclusion of amendments, which will serve to strengthen the legislation.

“The Bill is already tabled, the debate has opened in Parliament, but there are some tweaks to be done… . The delay is regrettable, but the delay has turned out to be necessary, and I think that the Bill will be better for (it),” he said.

The new amnesty, which was announced by Minister of National Security, Hon. Robert Montague, during Tuesday’s (November 14) sitting of the Lower House, will end on January 13, 2018.