THE new Road Traffic Act was finally approved by Parliament yesterday, but its implementation is unlikely to be completed prior to next April.

The Senate passed the five-year-old Bill, which has survived several reviews since 2014, after a prolonged debate, during which some Opposition members raised several concerns but did not vote against the provisions. However, the regulations are likely to take another three to four months.

Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith told the Senate that the Bill was not about revenue nor discrimination against route taxi drivers, but about creating a safe environment for all road users.

“We have to act now as too many lives are being lost to wanton road terror… and the simple truth is that these bad practices have continued because of the failure of the legislative framework to provide an enforcement mechanism to make undisciplined road users accountable for their actions,” Senator Johnson Smith, who is also the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, told the Senate.

She said that the new framework, which will be introduced under the new Road Traffic Act, would reduce the opportunity for human error or corruption interrupting enforcement.

“The facilitation of disorder without accountability must change now, and the urgent need for new legislation and robust enforcement by technology, as well, cannot be overstated,” she said.

Opposition member Senator Floyd Morris, who was acting as Leader of Opposition Business in the absence of Senator Donna Scott Mottley, felt that some provisions, including that which requires the owners of vehicles to be held responsible for unpaid fines for breaches committed by drivers of their vehicles, were unfair.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/senate-passes-new-road-traffic-act_151716