Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer column published on Monday, February 7, 2022
By Jean Lowrie-Chin
Dr Lucien Jones, vice-chair and tireless advocate for road safety, must be delighted that the Road Traffic Act is finally being implemented. In an open letter last month he reflected on the 482 road deaths in 2021 and the projected figure of 480 by outgoing head of Mona GeoInfomatics Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr.
Alphea Sumner, Jamaica Observer senior staff reporter, gave the highlights of the new regulations, which came into effect on February 1. Among them: up to $150,000 for defacing, mutilating, obliterating, adding to, reproducing, duplicating certificates of fitness, licence certificates, licence decals, and certificates of title; fines of up to $250,000 for advertising for sale, selling, using, or installing a device which gives inaccurate odometer readings or altering their odometers; $10,000 fine for travelling in a vehicle with part of the body protruding or allowing a passenger to do so; $10,000 fine for driving a motor vehicle which causes a sound exceeding the noise limit; and up to $80,000 in fines for providing the services of a driving instructor without the relevant authority.
All the fines are on conviction and also carry an alternative term of imprisonment.
Jamaica Highlights 