VICE-CHAIRMAN of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Dr Lucien Jones says significant improvements have been made to the road traffic ticketing system, including gaps that caused the system to reflect thousands of outstanding tickets.

“When you get a ticket, you pay at the tax office and that information is transmitted by the police to the court office. There was a problem there, which has, in large part, been solved.

“What you call the ‘failed ticket’ — [whereby] you would pay and because of some problem in the system it would not be recorded as having been paid — therefore, the danger was that your name would not be sent over to the courts office as having paid,” Jones explained in a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer, as he addressed growing concerns about the death toll from motor vehicle crashes in 2019.

The Ministry of National Security, which is spearheading the overhaul of the traffic ticket management system, in partnership with other state agencies including the NRSC, reported early last year that administrative delays in the system had caused more than 240,000 tickets to be reflected as unpaid in the Government’s database.

This represented 77 per cent of the tickets which the ministry said were outstanding between November 22, 2010 and December 2018, amounting to $642 million.

Jones said another issue arises when individuals challenge their tickets in court.

“When you go to court, if you don’t pay and challenge in court, then you have to pay at court and that information has to be uploaded into the database, and based on that data those who haven’t paid and haven’t challenged are in breach of the system and are liable to have a warrant issued,” he explained.

He said, however, that judges have been reluctant to sign these warrants because of the problem with the database in the court system. He said even while the kinks in the system are being ironed out, there is also the logistical problem of signing the large number of warrants.

Electronic signing is being pursued as a solution to that, but Jones noted that having judges agree to this is “another hurdle to cross”.

“Having crossed that hurdle now, and the warrants are executed, then the police have to find the people — that’s another problem,” he said.

Jones said that while the overhaul of the ticket management system is advanced, until it is fully efficient, “you will have people who will disregard the tickets”.

He stressed that the NRSC will be placing priority on the traffic ticket management system in 2020, noting also that the council is pushing for the electronic issuing of tickets. However, the legal framework is not yet in place to support that.

The updated Road Traffic Act was passed in Parliament over a year ago, but the regulations are yet to be tabled.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/hiccups-in-traffic-ticket-system-being-addressed_183936