Motorists have 48 days to clear their traffic ticket arrears if they want to capitalise on an effective amnesty that ends on January 31, 2023.
If paid in time, demerit points generated after February 1, 2018, will be expunged. The Government has also pledged to wipe from the slate all infractions committed on February 1, 2018, or earlier.
The disclosure, made by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Tuesday night, will be viewed as a victory for bus and taxi operators who lobbied for a payment plan to be implemented to spare drivers who had racked up reams of tickets. The new Road Traffic Act (RTA) is expected to come into force next February.
“Legislative steps will be taken to render all demerit points and tickets accrued up to February 1, 2018, null and as such they will not be transitioned to the RTA 2018,” OPM said in a statement.
“Provided that the tickets accrued after February 1, 2018, are paid before February 1, 2023, demerit points will be expunged upon the implementation of the RTA 2018.”
The traffic ticket concession could reap millions of dollars for the Treasury, as Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said in July that more than a million traffic tickets remain outstanding over the last five years.
A taxi driver who operates on Windward Road, Kingston, and who has 101 outstanding tickets, is elated at the news. His arrears exceed $130,000.
“I feel good. This is more than a relief. Most of my tickets are from 2013, 2010,” the cabbie told The Gleaner Tuesday night.
Cabinet said that there would be greater efficiency with a fully digitised process with the new Traffic Ticket Management System.
There was a rash of fatal crashes in the island on the weekend, with Jamaica’s annual record of 487 road deaths, registered in 2021, in danger of being exceeded.
As at December 13, the Road Safety Unit recorded 455 crash deaths.
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