A new traffic offence carrying a fine of $1,500 or imprisonment for three months will be enforced throughout T&T from midnight today. The Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Mobile Devices) Regulations 2010, laid in Parliament last November by Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner, will come into effect from midnight. The law forbids any person from driving or having charge of a motor vehicle, on any road whilst holding or using a hand-held mobile device (inclusive of viewing, sending and composing electronic messages) and extends also to people operating such devices whilst supervising the holder of a provisional (learner's) permit.
Contravention of any one of the regulations outlined above, subjects the offender to a summary conviction of a $1,500 fine or imprisonment for three months. Warner, in his address at the opening ceremony of the Traffic Warden Training Programme (phase one) at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre last Wednesday, revealed that it was his intention to have within the next three months, some 300 trained traffic wardens to uphold the current cellphone regulations, as well as assist (and eventually replace) police officers who were now overseeing the wrecking of vehicles illegally parked and issuing tickets for specific traffic violations.
As stipulated in the regulations, the "ban" will not apply where hand-held mobile devices are used in a vehicle which is off the roadway or lawfully parked, not in motion and not obstructing traffic. Operators of an ambulance, Fire Service and Police Service vehicles and "any other person or class of persons" either "holding or using a device" and "engaged in an activity prescribed by the minister under the act," however, shall be exempt from these laws.
Enforcement of the regulations will not restrict drivers from using a mobile device whilst their vehicle is in motion if the device is in hands-free mode or otherwise not "required to be held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function." These restrictions on drivers' cellphone usage had its roots in the last administration when then prime minister and minister of finance Patrick Manning moved to amend the Motor Vehicle Act in his 2007 budget presentation.
The former political leader of the People's National Movement seemed bent (at that time), not only on making it an offence to use a mobile device when driving, but also to have television monitors in the front seats of vehicles outlawed. The current laws, however, do not make any provisions for the latter part of Manning's proposal.
Thoughts:
Enforcement of the regulations will not restrict drivers from using a mobile device whilst their vehicle is in motion if the device is in hands-free mode or otherwise not "required to be held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function."