Marshall defends traffic amendment

Attorney General Dale Marshall has thrown his support behind the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2025, saying it is essential to improving how Barbados’ criminal justice system handles minor traffic offences.

Speaking in the House of Assembly after the Bill was tabled by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw, Marshall said the government was updating penalties to ensure they reflect modern economic realities and encourage compliance without clogging the courts.

“In law, sir, we talk, and in economics, I believe we talk about the present-day value of money,” Marshall said. “What the court would have awarded 30 or 40 years ago and what would be an equivalent amount today… $50 40 years ago has to be increased so as to be commensurate with today’s values.”

He explained that under a fixed penalty regime, motorists would be invited to pay the penalty and move on, rather than face court proceedings.

“We had to make sure, sir, of several things. One, that the amount of the penalty would have to be such that it would be an incentive for the person not to go through a court process, but it still had to bear in mind the realities of the current value of money,” he added.

Marshall said failing to amend the legislation would leave penalties so low that offenders could repeatedly break traffic laws without consequence.

“Otherwise, our fixed penalty regime would have such low penalties that a person could break the traffic laws as they pleased and just pay the penalty,” the AG said.

He added that the amendment gives the minister discretion to determine which offences fall under the fixed penalty regime, rather than listing them in law.

According to him, “We had a whole set of offences in the existing legislation, but the truth is offences will fall off the books. Other offences will come in as time goes by, and therefore it was important… to give the minister the power to say, well, these are the offences that the fixed penalty regime will apply to.”

Marshall also stressed that most traffic offences are not committed with criminal intent, making administrative penalties more appropriate.

“Traffic offences are of a kind that do not generally carry the animus, the [criminal intent] of a person intending to commit an offence; sometimes they do, but for the most part they don’t.”

He said the changes would prevent unnecessary criminalisation, as offenders would avoid criminal records and the expense of hiring lawyers for minor infractions.

According to the attorney general, the amendment will also reduce the backlog in the courts, allow magistrates and police to focus on more serious matters, and streamline traffic enforcement across the island.