Compol: Make the Adjustment for Safer Driving Practices  

In December 2023, the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Transportation made several amendments to motor vehicle and road traffic regulations, which were implemented in March of this year. These amendments include the mandatory use of seatbelts for drivers and all passengers in motor vehicles and the predominance of the use of electric devices, such as cell phones, while always driving a vehicle. Failure to comply with wearing a seatbelt will result in the issuance of a traffic violation ticket, while the use of an electronic device will incur a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both a fine and imprisonment. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams said that while the adjustment may not come easily to most, it is important.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

 “It certainly gives the police and the traffic wardens the authority in law to be able to issue violation tickets for any person who is found to be driving a motor vehicle not wearing a seatbelt and to persons who are on a cellphone while they’re driving. So, it is, it is a good thing. I must say that many a times we see people committing these infractions. I myself do it at times. So, I have to make the adjustment as well. As you would know, I’m a person who traversed the country a lot and if I know I’m going somewhere that I will return home later than expected, I would not take my driver because he has to go home to his family. So I would normally drive myself. And when I do drive myself, I still have to be paying attention to the phone. messages are coming in, calls are coming in. So I have my vehicle, when I connect your phone to the vehicle, there is an application on my phone that allows the phone to read the text, so that is good. And I also use the application where I can speak to the phone and the phone, writes the text messages, and then just say, send it. So there is that hands free capability with the phone, once connected to the vehicle. But it still is a distraction at times. So, again, it’s just a matter for us to make that adjustment and make sure that we comply with the regulations. in terms of the seatbelt, we know that there have been many instances where seatbelts do save lives. We have had a number of traffic fatalities on our highways and so it is important that drivers as well as passengers in vehicles wear the seatbelt. It is to save your own life should the need arise.”