MOTORISTS WITH unpaid traffic tickets and outstanding warrants have been given the opportunity to clean up their records without fear of prosecution, the island's Police Traffic Division announced yesterday.
Failure to respond, however, to what the police are calling 'a one shot deal', will result in motorists being barred from re-licensing vehicles, renew insurance policies or conduct various other transactions.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Senior Superintendent Elan Powell, said the traffic police have opened a "window of opportunity" for persons who have failed to answer to over 30,000 warrants. According to him, these offenders will not be prosecuted once they appear in court.
"Some of the warrants are outstanding for the past five years. Since January we have executed 8,000 warrants on these offenders," SSP Powell explained.
He said persons with outstanding tickets can now visit the Process Office at the Traffic Headquarters in Kingston and make the arrangement to pay fines and have their records purged..
"They will not be arrested once they come in. We will check their records and if there are any outstanding warrants for them, we will just take them to court," said SSP Powell.
Under the new multi-million dollar traffic ticketing system, records, he said, will have to be spotless before motorists can renew drivers licences and conduct other business.
Between October 13 and 19, a total of 7,205 offenders were ticketed by the Police Traffic Division. The Highway Patrol and Motorised Traffic Section were responsible for issuing 1,467 of the tickets.
The police said 1,852 motorists were penalised for speeding, another 317 were ticketed for disobeying road signs, 302 for improper overtaking, 291 for obstructing traffic, 267 for careless driving, 197 for not wearing safety gear, 182 for dangerous driving and 129 for driving defective vehicles.
The police observed that excessive speeding, improper overtaking and motorists who fail to keep to the near side, have accounted for most of the tickets issued.
