SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT Elan Powell, head of the Traffic Department, says the issuing of summonses for certain traffic offences will make it harder for the police to enforce the law.
He was responding yesterday to the recent Court of Appeal ruling that summonses must be issued to motorists for offences such as careless driving.
SSP Powell argued that the ruling would make the work of the police more difficult. He said it would be hard to locate Justices of the Peace at the convenient time to sign the summonses and that mechanisms would have to be put in place to deal with that.
"Many of the traffic accidents are as a result of careless and dangerous driving, so we can't turn a blind eye; we just have to face up to the task," SSP Powell said. He said, though, that "until the law is amended we just have to abide by it."
The Court of Appeal ruled last week that a traffic ticket was not the legal process by which a motorist can be brought to court to answer a charge for careless driving. The court said that, for such offences, summonses must be issued to the motorists.
The ruling does not apply only to careless driving but also includes dangerous driving, reckless driving and other traffic offences which do not fall under Section 116 of the Road Traffic Act.A Government lawyer said yesterday that the Court of Appeal's ruling means that summonses would now have to be issued for cases in which tickets are issued for careless driving and other offences such as dangerous driving.
