Overhaul of minor traffic offence system urged

No minor traffic violation of the Road Traffic Act should result in people having to go to court, Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne told Parliament on Tuesday.

In debate on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, Thorne urged that the government move to separate the treatment of minor traffic offences from those which are “really and genuinely criminal offences”, like those of causing death by dangerous driving or driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

He said: “Those are genuinely criminal offences, but when a man doesn’t have two reflectors in place or a number plate that is probably not meeting with the standards and the road traffic rules or the act, why do you criminalise him?”  

Saying that, over the years, minor infractions have been reclassified as road traffic offences rather than criminal charges, Thorne declared that the courts still treated these offenders “in a real sense” as criminals.

Urging the transport minister to “firmly categorise” these offences, Thorne stated these must not be seen as criminal matters.

“No minor traffic offender should be standing up before a magistrate in this case, explaining behaviour when you can issue a ticket, the person pays it, and as is done in the other countries, if you oppose what the police officer or the traffic warden alleges, then you can explain to a magistrate why you think you’re so right,” he said, adding that a ticketing system would result in less stress on the courts and on citizens.

“I don’t know if there’s still something called a call day, in which you assemble good citizens in the courtyard. Sometimes, 200 people waiting in the courtyard from 9.30 until 2.30 and sometimes it would extend to three o’clock because somebody in there saying he’s not guilty of having two reflectors of a different colour. He takes up an hour cross-examining policemen and humbugging magistrates with foolishness. When he could have received a ticket, and the other persons who came to confess to the offence could easily be dispatched, so that the court system is held up by a system which needs to be overhauled.”