Hanover traffic authority takes aim at illegal motorcycles

WESTERN BUREAU:

WITH THE operators of illegal motorcycles said to be prominently in committing street crimes and other crimes in Hanover, the police traffic division in the parish is now gearing up for major assault aimed at removing them from the streets of the parish.

However, with over 300 motorcycles already seized and taking up valuable storage space at the Hanover police headquarters, concerns abound as to the effectiveness of seizing the motorcycles, which in many cases are abandoned by their users when they are confronted by the police.

Senior Inspector Robert Campbell, of the Island Traffic Authority Depot in Lucea, Hanover, told the November sitting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) that an increased effort will be made to curtail the use of illegal motorcycles in the parish.

“Coming up to the holiday season, I am planning something with the police, to see if we can do a lot more road spot checks because you know that it’s the crazy season,” said Campbell, in outlining one of the planned initiatives to go after the illegal motorcycles.

According to Campbell, the plan is not just about stemming criminal activities, but also geared towards reducing the growing number of motor vehicle accidents on the roads in the parish.

Lucea’s Mayor Sheridan Samuels, who is also chairman of the HMC, has been quite vocal about the need to clamp down on the lawless motorcyclists who have been moving about the parish, breaking the law with impunity. According to him, there needs to be a national policy on the operation of motorcycles.

“I cannot understand how is it that, a man buying a car, have to insure the car and license it before it leaves the depot, and anyone can take their two-pence and go to any place and buy a motorcycle over a counter and ride it out the same time, that is not good,” said Samuels.

OVER 80 PER CENT UNINSURED BIKES

“If you go down by the police headquarters right now, you see probably thousands of motorcycles there, because as soon as the police seize them, they (the operators) just go to a counter and order another motorcycle. More than 80 per cent of the motorcycles that are out there on the roads now are not insured. Also, more than 80 per cent of the riders do not even have a learner’s licence that will allow them to ride a motorcycle,” added Samuels.

In establishing a link between motorcyclists and rampant criminality, Samuels pointed out that a recent shooting in the Barberry Hill community in the parish, where three persons were shot in a shop, the perpetrators were motorcyclists.

Campbell, who has been serving at the examiner depot in the Hanover parish capital for six months, said that while a system is in place to deal with the illegal operation of motorcycles, the lawless culture of those operating the motorcycles is a major problem.

“We are going to put some things in place, so going forward, we will be having regular road spot checks, and the motorcycle riders will basically be the number-one target going forward,” said Campbell, who nonetheless noted that a shortage of traffic police personnel in the parish could hamper the regularity with which the road spot checks can be done.