28 fined $60,000 for drunken driving

A total of 28 drivers yesterday were ordered to pay fines totaling more than $60,000 for drunken driving over the long Emancipation Day weekend. The road traffic exercises took place on Aranguez Main Road, Caura Road, Toco Main Road and were part of efforts by the police to curb carnage on T&T’s roads. In Port-of-Spain, four of the 28 were each fined between $3,000 and $5,000 after pleading guilty before Magistrate Wendy Dougdeen-Bally in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court.

They were caught by officers of the Morvant CID, led by Insp Ramlogan and Sgt Boodoo, in Aranguez on Friday night, with PC Lawrence Persad, of the Woodbrook Police Station, charging one driver in an unrelated exercise on Tragarete Road, Woodbrook. Dougdeen-Bally also suspended the men’s driver’s permits for between one to three months. Officers involved in that exercise on Friday night also ticketed 41 other drivers for other traffic offences. 

In Tunapuna, 11 drivers were ordered to pay between $500 and $2,500 in fines for drunken driving after appearing before Tunapuna Magistrate Andrew Stroude. Officers of the Tunapuna Police Station, who were on an exercise on Cuara Road between 3 pm to 7 pm on Sunday, arrested the men who were returning from river limes. The exercise was spearheaded by Senior Supt David Abraham and included ASP Francis Joseph and Cpl Leo Simon. In Sangre Grande, a similar exercise on the Toco Main Road, Valencia Main Road junction, on Monday led to the arrest of 13 drivers for the same offence.

More than $40,000 in fines were issued by Sangre Grande Magistrate Aden Stroude, with one driver being imprisoned for 60 days with hard labour. That exercise was led by Supt Hendron Moses and ASP Neville Sankar. Under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act the legal alcohol limit in T&T is 35 microgrammes of alcohol per millilitre of breath. Fines up to $8,000 or up to three years imprisonment may be issued by magistrates to drivers found guilty under the Act.