Senator Lalite-Ettienne: Parts not easily sourced, timeframe too short for repairs

INDEPENDENT SENATOR Alicia Lalite-Ettienne has expressed her support for the government's Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill in the upper house on January 20, but urged that more time be given for motorists to effect repairs on their vehicles, as she said there are instances where parts cannot be quickly acquired locally and need to be imported, which could take months.

Although visually impaired, the senator had an in-depth understanding of the difficulties facing drivers, drawing on the experiences of her husband, who is a taxi driver. She detailed how parts for his Toyota Yaris were difficult to come by "in the Bamboo" requiring him to return to the firm. Many times, depending on the part, she said it could take months to arrive and could only be expedited at an increased cost. She said while people may try importing parts themselves, some are met with the wrong one on arrival.

"We are not like those first-world countries or countries that have manufacturing plants like the US so you can get your parts quickly. We are in a third-world country where you have the time period for shipping, ordering and it still takes a while even though with AI and all the upgraded technology and things are much faster, we still experience a delay. So I am kindly asking the government, if Transport Minister, you could look into it. Three to seven days, it's really, really tough and also if there is a strategy, a system you could implement if the person get that part and they waiting on it, if there is something they can show, if there is some documentation because when police officers stop you on the road, right now they are not having any mercy. Immediately, they consider you as being lawless."

One of the key features of the bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives on January 16, is to allow motorists in breach of certain regulations a grace period of three to seven days, depending on the infraction, to have it rectified. Once fixed within the period, they can show up to the police or licensing office and have it certified. If they fail to do so, the warning automatically turns into a fine.

Responding to Lalite-Ettienne's concerns, government Senator David Nakhid said it would be a matter of discretion.

"A law cannot take all the delicate calibrations and intricacies that can occur. That's just a fact, and that's why we have we call discretion. That's why we have a certain grace period."

In lending her support to the bill, Lalite-Ettienne said many people purchase vehicles without understanding that they require maintenance and expect to neglect it while flying under the radar. For law-abiding citizens, like her husband, she said this was unfair.

"In anything that you have to do, there is a maintenance component. It could be a vehicle, it could be a building, it could even be your own body. You don't have maintenance of your body and you'd see how long you last on the face of the earth. So I applaud the government in aspects of this bill so you'd have people abiding to the laws, traffic laws of TT."

Opposition Senator Janelle John-Bates also took issue with the timeframe set out in the grace period, particularly as it requires additional work for police and licensing officers to certify the repairs. She argued that the officers were already overworked and under-resourced and that if they are unable to submit the necessary paperwork in time, motorists would be subject to fines through the automatic system despite having the issues rectified. As evidence of the consequences for failed administrative processes, the senator pointed to the 2018 arrest of Patrick Awong over a $1,000 traffic fine three years earlier, despite having paid it. He was kept in custody for eight hours until his brother paid the $1,000 ticket again, which was later refunded.

"Due to the short timelines in this bill, the likelihood of administrative failures happening is high and the point of the matter is if the Certificate of compliance is not transmitted in time or logged in time, your fixed penalty warning will automatically show up on the system as a fixed penalty. You will then be required, by law to pay the fine and if you don't pay the fine and the system does not note that you have contested, you will get the summons to come to court and God help you cause you don't know when this would happen."