Editorial | Fix amnesty arrangement

Notwithstanding the Government’s wish to maintain a veneer of its traffic ticket amnesty as an entirely judicial process, good sense requires that it allows the fines to be paid at places other than parish courts. Tax offices and other places that collect money on behalf of the Government are the logical venues.

Not doing so, and failing to act quickly, risks eventual chaotic scenes at parish courts and the possibility of people’s frustration and anger evolving into something worse.

In this regard, the Government must also quickly bring the promised Amnesty Bill (by whatever name it is called) to Parliament, with appropriate adjustments, so that people with outstanding traffic tickets can begin to get the benefits early rather than await a last-minute crush.

Next month, a new Road Traffic Act, with stiffer penalties for breaches of the road code, will come into force. By reputation and anecdotal evidence, the island’s bus and taxi drivers have most to worry about from this.

They often drive over the speed limits, race and block each other in an effort to be first to the next fare, and regularly drive in the lanes belonging to oncoming traffic to get ahead of vehicles travelling in the direction they are heading. Indeed, there are many reports by the police of single bus and taxi drivers having hundreds of outstanding traffic tickets.

In November, thousands of bus and taxi drivers went on strike – which fizzled after a day – to press their demand for an amnesty on outstanding tickets.

CONCEDED

The Government insisted that it would not yield. However, in mid-December, the Holness administration conceded, but insisted that it was not an amnesty – because the Government was not calling it that.

What it announced was that all outstanding traffic tickets, issued up to February 1, 2018, including any demerit points accrued on them, would be cleaned from the records. They would become null and void.

Further, demerit points on tickets issued after February 1, 2018, would be similarly expunged if the fines on those tickets were paid by February 1, 2023 – just as the new law comes into force. “Legislative steps will be taken to render all demerit points and tickets accrued up to February 1, 2018, null … ,” a government statement said.

There is, however, a proviso. The Government said that outstanding tickets would have to be settled at parish courts, meaning that ticket holders have to appear before parish judges to be fined. On the face of it, parish judges, in the absence of legislation, have to apply their discretion/leniency on the question of demerit points rather than an absolute requirement of law.

This, in a way, is in keeping with the normal sequence of paying traffic fines. A person who does not contest the ticket has a window within which to pay the fine at a tax office or other designated places. When that window closes, the ticketed person has to attend a parish court to answer for the offence and possibly face a penalty higher than the statutory fine.

Ignorant of the process, some transport operators were shocked in the immediate aftermath of the announcement when they discovered at parish courts that they were subject to the existing penalties. Robert Morgan gleefully seized on this, saying that the Government’s action was not an amnesty.

Unsurprisingly, that initial trickle to the courts slowed, notwithstanding judges sitting later to accommodate the people who want to gain the benefit.

NARROWS THE WINDOW

The delay in tabling and passing the bill only narrows the window within which people will have to pay their fines and get the benefit of the second half of the amnesty. And if the Government maintains its stance that all settlements have to be before parish judges, the great likelihood is that courts will be overwhelmed nearer to the date when the new law comes into force.

In any event, the present process is inefficient, a waste of judicial time that gains nothing if the aim is to clear the backlog of unpaid tickets and start the new law with a clean slate.

This possible overwhelming of the courts, and the negatives that could flow from this, is too costly for saving face and to buttress the Government’s insistence that it did not cave in to unruly transport operators.

The Government has already explained that the previous traffic ticket-management system was a mess and that it is turning over a new leaf, with updated software connected across the government network. Some tickets paid under the old system were not recorded, the authorities have said.

That ought to be the big picture if there is to be certainty that things will not fall back to the old way.

In that event, what if the Government blinked and offered an amnesty if it were part of a strategic mission? Having decided to go that route, the administration’s obligation is to ensure that the process is effective. Doing politics with a small ‘p’ will not be the way this happens.

The Government should simplify the arrangement by codifying the expungement of demerit points in law and make it possible to pay ticket fines anywhere the Government collects taxes.