Clampdown on illegal tints proving successful

Apr 16, 2014 News

Many 44 Georgetown to Mahaica minibuses and their respective owners were yesterday going through their paces at Police Traffic Headquarters, Eve Leary, with Inspector Clarence Hudson to bring their vehicles in line with the traffic laws, with major emphasis being placed on rectifying illegal tinting.

This operator is having a hard time removing a section of unpermitted tint from his window.

Traffic Chief Superintendent Hugh Denhert told Kaieteur News that the exercise is against all categories of road users in breach of the traffic laws.
“Sometimes we find it necessary to target specific deficiencies within the system. The specific focus is now on minibuses. Two weeks prior it was private cars. This should send a clear message to those persons who are not within the ambit of the law… their turn is coming.”
Denhert explained that they are dealing with a lot of vehicles with tinted glass. Some of which are manufactured tint, while others are done locally.
“Even those with manufactured tint; what we find happening is that when the vehicle comes into the country you will have a waiver/permit from the Ministry of Home Affairs which will state that they have six months to remove those glasses and replace it with visible ones.”
He said that what usually happens is that persons apply for the permit but when the 6 months period is over they don’t renew their permits. This is also the case with the application of locally-applied tints.
According to Denhert, the police are targeting those persons whose permits have expired. He explained that there is supposed to be clear visibility and officers must be able to see through and identify the persons within the vehicle.
The clampdown is being conducted much to the dismay of the bus operators who are found to be in breach of the law. One of the operators was very vociferous in expressing his concerns over the recent actions by the police.
He said he doesn’t have a problem with the law taking its course, but contends that “there is double standard of the law in the country and the harassment is for no reason.”
He explained that if there is an accident involving a minibus then it is understandable that a vehicle has to be detained. He however had a problem with the vehicles being detained unnecessarily, more so when the bus is filled with passengers whom he said would have to be discharged.

Other minibus operators going through their paces.

“The vehicles don’t have an overload so it can go from Georgetown to Mahaica and return to the station, why empty the vehicles?”
“The law states clearly 35 percent dark and 65 per cent light tint and not no tint at all, which the police are saying. As long as I can remember motor vehicle tint was not banned, it was regulated… now a man getting locked up for a sun visor, these things affect nobody. Now if you so desire that you want these vehicles because that sun visor is two inches over its legal limit, let the people complete the contract that they are on, because when we pick up passengers we have an unspoken contract to put you off at your port of destination. This is harassment and it needs to come to an end.”
According to Traffic Chief, however, they have embarked on the exercise “to ensure that we get back some semblance of order within this society, because for too long the department has been trying over the years to have all these lewd writings and stuff they had before to come off, well we have achieved that. We are now focusing on illegal tint and other breaches”.
He explained that to beautify one’s vehicle is nice however “the law limits you to certain things, so you have to follow the rules. Until the law is changed to accommodate that, only then we can deal with that. We are here only to enforce the law.”