PSV driver fined $1 300

Minibus driver Robert Parris has until the end of next month to pay $1 300 in fines for two traffic offences.

Appearing before Magistrate Alison Burke in the District ‘A’ Traffic Court on Monday, the resident of Upper Crescent, Gall Hill, Christ Church pleaded guilty to stopping elsewhere than a bus stop for the purpose of picking up passengers, while on Tudor Street on January 19, 2023, and to being off route 12 days later, on Cheapside Road.

Seeking to give an explanation for the first offence, he said that as there were several other vans parked by the bus stop, he had pulled in front of the line to let passengers disembark.

“Some passengers had to get back inside the van cause I did not complete the route, so when the officer saw people getting back into the van, he told me I was picking up people other than at a bus stop,” he said.

Burke responded: “If the bus stop was full of vans, why couldn’t you just simply wait until one or two moved off and then proceed?… That is the problem: everybody is doing as they like. Nobody can wait. It is a problem.”

The magistrate imposed a $500 fine for that offence and $800 for the other, with an alternative of 40 days imprisonment.

The fines are to be paid by November 29, 2023.