74-year-old law amended…Demerit point system for errant drivers

May 16, 2014 News

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Government yesterday amended a 74-year-old law to introduce a demerit point system for errant drivers, as well to expand the definition of ‘owner’ of a vehicle to ensure that those who escaped prosecution in the past through a loophole in the law would no longer be able to do so.
The Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendments) Bill was successfully piloted by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, and won the unanimous support of A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC).

Nandlall, in presenting the Bill to the House for a debate, argued that the amendments seek to correct the lacuna that existed.
Speaking to the demerit point system to be introduced, Nandlall said, “I don’t think anyone can dispute we have an unusually high incidence of accidents on our roadways. When one looks at the figures, the fatalities range from children up to senior citizens.”
He told the House that when he was a part of the Disciplined Forces Commission, the Leader of the Opposition Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, who was also a part of the body, wrote at length on creating an environment that is safe for Guyanese and putting public safety on the national agenda.
Nandlall stressed that “safety on our roads is an important part of that regime.”
He argued that the demerit point system is a measure that is long overdue. This would see an important addition to the punishment for the offence, with the demerit points being applied to an errant driver’s licence.
He explained that the points would be recorded and when it gets to a certain limit, a driver would have his licence suspended for certain periods of time or even revoked altogether, depending on the quantum of points accrued.
“The Bill corrects certain lacuna in our statutory framework…It introduces a proven mechanism, that is the demerit point system.”
Nandlall in his lengthy presentation to the House said that the other aspect of the Bill deals with the multiplicity of stories published regarding crimes committed using a vehicle which is subsequently abandoned and investigations disclose that the vehicle is registered to a particular person but has been used by another.
According to Nandlall, this places the investigation in a difficult state in terms of proceeding smoothly.
The Attorney General said that most times the person on the registration really has parted use and possession of the vehicle for some time prior to the act, subject to investigation, and as a result of the technicality many investigations have come to an abrupt end.
He said that many who would have attracted liability would have escaped.
“This Bill seeks to address that issue and attendant and resultant issues that arise out of that lacuna in the Act.”
The amendment would see persons who buy a vehicle through transactions such as Hire Purchase having the vehicle being registered to them, so that in the case of a crime being committed, they would be subject to prosecution.
The current law speaks to prosecution only for the owner of the vehicle, which means that should a person be purchasing a vehicle and commit an offence while it is still registered to someone else, that person would be liable.
He did point out that having the vehicle registered in their name would not relieve them of their obligations with regards to paying their debt.
APNU’s Basil Williams and Winston Felix supported the Bill on behalf of the coalition.
Williams in his presentation to the debate said that APNU welcomes the demerit system and that Government should be complimented. He did note that the amendments to the law come on the heels of statistics on road fatalities which indicate that there is an average of nine deaths each month.
The demerit system, according to Williams, “is another mechanism to curb the carnage on our roads.” He also welcomed the other aspect of the Bill in relation to ownership of a motor vehicle, but did point out that it would need some fine tuning.

Williams pointed out that somebody currently can drive a vehicle, get into an accident, and you would have to sue the owner. “This new provision will now be targeting the person who committed the offence.”
AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan also supported the move by Government.
“As we grow as a nation and activities become more complex, we need to modernize and refine our laws so that we can in a sense take care of that which was unforeseen.”
He suggested that this is primarily the purpose in expanding ownership definition, so as to get those who might have invoked certain arguments to escape liability.
“We are going to have scenarios where people might very well outsmart this piece of legislation, realizing that parliamentarians would not know every scenario,” Ramjattan admitted.
He said that the AFC will support the amendment as is, and expressed the hope that when further loopholes are unearthed to escape the provisions, there would be further amendments.
Felix in his presentation said that the demerit system is welcomed, but measures must be put in place so that when drivers have their licences suspended there will be some form of remedial training. He prefaced this by saying that “at the end of the period of disqualification it is not likely that the drivers will automatically change their errant ways”.

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