Government insists there will be no extension of reprieve, which ends this Wednesday

Durrant Pate/Contributor

With the end of the current traffic ticket reprieve fast approaching, Transport Minister Audley Shaw is making a final appeal for motorists with outstanding traffic tickets to come in and settle their fines.

Minister Shaw implored for Jamaicans to take advantage of the period of reprieve, which will definitely end next Tuesday, as there will be no extension, which is demanded by some segments of the society, in spite of the confusion being experienced by many motorists trying to clear their tickets by the January 31 deadline.

They are seeking to beat the Wednesday, February 1 time frame for the new Road Traffic Act and Regulations taking effect, in which the fines and penalties under the Act have been increased.

Yesterday the House of Representatives passed the Road Traffic (Reprieve and Nullification of Prescribed Notices) Act, 2023 with three amendments.

The Act was passed to afford persons a period of reprieve to address outstanding matters in respect of notices issued prior to February 1, 2023, under section 116 of the Road Traffic Act 1938 and to nullify demerit points recorded against their licences. The Act offers all motorists, who have tickets still unpaid to clear these matters and for all who have made their payments to have a clean slate without demerit points when the revised Road Traffic Act is brought into force.

Final call being made

In piloting the bill amending the Act, Minister Shaw used the opportunity to “implore all motorists, who still have outstanding tickets to appear early before the Traffic Court and if they are having challenges paying their traffic tickets, to indicate their difficulty to the courts to see whether any appropriate arrangement can be made concerning the payments.”

He advised that tickets, which remain outstanding after the reprieve expires, will be enforced in accordance with the new provisions to include suspension of licences.

For his part, Floyd Green, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, told the parliament that 2,371,494 tickets were issued from February 1, 2018, to the start of December 2022, and 1,666,371 tickets were paid.

According to Green, 45 persons have over 500 tickets outstanding, while 1773 have between 100 and 499 tickets. Minister Green made the point that most Jamaicans, who receive traffic tickets pay them in the prescribed timeframe explaining that a traffic ticket only becomes outstanding after 21 days have passed and it is not paid at the tax office.