Howard Campbell, Gleaner WriterROUTE TAXI operators can expect no favours from the National Association of Taxi Operators (NATO), the organisation to which many of them are
affiliated, if they breach road regulations in 2005.
Edgerton Newman, general secretary of NATO, says operators who breach Transport Authority guidelines will feel the hammer.
EXCESS PASSENGERS
"We are going to take strong action against delinquents," Mr. Newman told The Gleaner. He said drivers with excess passengers will be heavily penalised.
"The vehicle should not move unless it has the required amount of passengers," Mr. Newman stressed.
Under Transport Authority rules, route taxis should carry four passengers minus the driver; the maximum passengers on the hackney carrier (chartered) should be four passengers, including the driver.
According to Detective Super-intendent Elan Powell of the Police Traffic Department, persons driving cars with excess passengers are subject to a fine of $800. For motorcyclists, the fine is $400.
Since it was formed in March 2003, NATO has grown to 47 affiliates with more than 11,000 members.
Mr. Newman says his executive met with members at a two-day seminar at the Astra Hotel in Mandeville from December 6-7 to discuss several issues, including safety measures.
He said that another meeting is planned for January at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, where new fines will be proposed for drunk drivers, as well as delinquent drivers and passengers.
TRAGEDIES
Mr. Newman's warning comes in the aftermath of three motor vehicle accidents that killed 18 persons within seven days in St. Catherine, Westmoreland and St. Mary.
The first of the incidents took place on December 20 in Kent Village, St. Catherine, and involved a route taxi driven by Hubert Thomas. He was among the six persons who died after his Toyota Corolla motor car smashed head-on into a Leyland truck.
Six persons also lost their lives on Christmas Day at Scotts Cove in Westmoreland, when the car in which they were
travelling plunged into a ditch and exploded.
The holiday tragedies continued on Boxing Day along the Lodge main road in St. Ann. Again, six persons lost their lives after their car ran off the road into the White River, which borders St. Mary and St. Ann.
According to the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), 296 persons have been killed in vehicular accidents in Jamaica since the start of 2004.
