Motor Vehicle Fix-It Notices

[abducted]

THE TTPS (Trinidad and Tobago Police Service) frequently issues press releases lauding the outcome of their road blocks exercises.

You’ll usually find a summary of the traffic violations they caught. Right now, citizens are being severely punished for matters such as:

Defaced or defective identification plates ($450 fine and three demerit points);
Vehicle with defective fittings ($450 fine and three demerit points);
Vehicle without tail (brake) lights ($1,000 fine and three demerits points);
Use of vehicle with defective or no windshield wiper ($300 fine and two demerit points).
What do all of these violations have in common?

These are more or less maintenance issues that can crop up anytime. It’s possible the problem occurred without the driver even being aware something was wrong. Or because the problem may have happened recently, the unlucky driver just didn’t get an opportunity to rectify the issue before becoming trapped in a TTPS road block.

Take your brake lights, for instance. Some vehicles are outfitted with a sensor which detects when a brake light is no longer working and immediately notifies the driver.

However, this is not standard in all vehicles. Without that sensor, when a brake light fails, unless someone pulls up alongside shouting: “Yuh brake light nah wukin!,” you will not know.

In circumstances like these, I am hard pressed to agree that giving the owner of the car a fine and demerit points without an opportunity to fix the problem first, is reasonable or fair.

The TTPS has no discretion in the matter, other than letting you off the hook. But if caught in a road exercise, your chances of being let off with a warning may be as good as winning the next lotto jackpot.

Elsewhere in the world, the authorities have brilliantly given their police officers the discretion to issue Fix-It Notices. These notices are known by other names too, such as a Defective Equipment Warnings or Defect Notices.

The concept behind these notices is a marvellously simple one. Using the same failed brake light example, generally what happens is this:

You are issued a Fix-It Notice advising you that your brake light is not working.
The notice specifies you have a grace period of a certain number of days to fix it and get the repair work signed off by an authorised person.
If you don’t comply within that time, the fine and/or demerit points kicks in. You may also get another violation tacked on for failure to comply.
If you do repair it, there’s no penalty.
Apart from the fines, under the current law, demerit points stay on your driving permit record for two years, if no further points are accumulated. If you rack up a minimum of ten demerit points over a three-year period, you could be suspended from driving for six months.

In some cases, you could be permanently suspended. Being deprived of the right to drive is a very serious consequence for breach of these types of violations.

As the saying goes: “Common sense often makes good law” (William O. Douglas). It makes complete sense to give our citizens the opportunity to first fix some of these motor vehicle violations and to only penalize them if they don’t. It’s seems fair and the right thing to do.

And as Edmund Burke said: “Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.”

So why isn’t motor Vehicle Fix-It notices part of our law? Be safe Trinidad and Tobago.

Copyright © 2021 Neela Ramsundar, LL.B (HONS), L.E.C is a Civil Litigation Attorney at Law & Certified Mediator.

https://azpnews.com/tt-should-have-moto ... it-notices

[elec2020]

op the point of the system was to improve fine collection for traffic violations. in particular, the increase in road blocks in my humble opinion is to help the government recover some of the losses they will accumulate over the fiscal year given the fall in energy prices. case in point. with the frequency of these road blocks has crime gone down? how much criminals we hear got caught in these stings? or is it that we just hearing the ttps boast about how much traffic violators they found?

[adnj]

Defective equipment "fix-it" tickets can be signed by any police officer in that jurisdiction to show that the equipment defect has been remedied prior to the first court date.

Defective equipment tickets in other jurisdictions require your presentation of proof of remedy to the court and payment of a court administration fee in exchange for the invalidation of the citationor ticket.

In Trinidad, you will need to remedy your defective equipment issue before requesting a court hearing at the 15 day deadline. Your reason for requesting the hearing is to show that you have remedied the defect and you must have proof that you have done so. This is process is essentially similar to most of Europe, the UK and North America.

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Contesting your traffic ticket

Under the new traffic ticketing system, matters only reach the court’s list when a motorist files a notice to contest their traffic ticket. If you decide to contest a traffic ticket, you may seek the assistance of an Attorney-at-Law. You can file a notice to contest with the Court within fifteen (15) days from the date of issue via the portal on https://contest.ttlawcourts.org or by visiting a Magistrates’ Court.

[sMASH]

Ur saying what it should be, not what the system in Trinidad actually is?

If so, same System the torints out the ticket coudk be used update that the fix was done and good.
Any officer can take a report, any officer can issue a ticket and. Thus any officer with the ticket devices should be able to note ur fix it fox.

[fallen_angel]

Anyone one of u all know the lawyer girl that wrote that article? She seems very knowledgeable and well spoken. Maybe she could start a petition to get some of these things revisited

[adnj]

Ur saying what it should be, not what the system in Trinidad actually is?

If so, same System the torints out the ticket coudk be used update that the fix was done and good.
Any officer can take a report, any officer can issue a ticket and. Thus any officer with the ticket devices should be able to note ur fix it fox.

Contact your attorney and get the definitive answer if you require proof.

Based on what you are asking for, you want any officer to sign off on a remedied infraction -- then you will be in another thread b!tching and moaning about corrupt police writing tickets to get payoffs. But perhaps having something to b!tch and moan about is the objective.

Take it to court along with evidence of prior remedy.

[sMASH]

so u want people to go to court for a light bulb? for a fuse? for a bad pothole loosen up fixture?
a person still has to give up a productive day.
all i am saying is, the tech is ALREADY available for the ticket/demerit points to go on ur DP within a minute with any officer with the ticket device. it COULD be just as simple to clear the FIXIT ticket too.

i just dont understand the trini mentality of every thing needing to be some form of punishment or penance.

the goal of these things is merely to ensure people vehicle is safe to be on the road. if the light blow, jess fix it. is only if ur tardy in fixing it, should it become a national problem.

[adnj]

The need to b!tch and moan is strong.

[zoom rader]

so u want people to go to court for a light bulb? for a fuse? for a bad pothole loosen up fixture?
a person still has to give up a productive day.
all i am saying is, the tech is ALREADY available for the ticket/demerit points to go on ur DP within a minute with any officer with the ticket device. it COULD be just as simple to clear the FIXIT ticket too.

i just dont understand the trini mentality of every thing needing to be some form of punishment or penance.

the goal of these things is merely to ensure people vehicle is safe to be on the road. if the light blow, jess fix it. is only if ur tardy in fixing it, should it become a national problem.

Punishment or penance is what you called the Slave mentality . It is engrained into certain people that you need punishment or penance to deal with an issue . This is why black folk will be beat their kids while white folk will apply a different method to deal with the same issue

[adnj]

so u want people to go to court for a light bulb? for a fuse? for a bad pothole loosen up fixture?
a person still has to give up a productive day.
all i am saying is, the tech is ALREADY available for the ticket/demerit points to go on ur DP within a minute with any officer with the ticket device. it COULD be just as simple to clear the FIXIT ticket too.

i just dont understand the trini mentality of every thing needing to be some form of punishment or penance.

the goal of these things is merely to ensure people vehicle is safe to be on the road. if the light blow, jess fix it. is only if ur tardy in fixing it, should it become a national problem.

Punishment or penance is what you called the Slave mentality . It is engrained into certain people that you need punishment or penance to deal with an issue . This is why black folk will be beat their kids while white folk will apply a different method to deal with the same issue

Granny beat zoomie with her shoe. The need to b!tch and moan is strong.

[88sins]

I just curious here eh op
Allyuh eh realize that all these steep fines are strictly about "revenue" collection by way of penalizing one of the largest cross section of citizens in the country and not about making the nation's roadways safer?
Ain't no money in it for the albino midget if they tell you to fix the problem and not squeeze the fine for trivial infractions out your pocket son. They want your money, and they don't care about you, so they have no motivation to consider any other alternative to bleeding you dry with ridiculous fines for even more ridiculous infractions.

[j.o.e]

Unaffected.... I take care of my vehicles and if I’m so unlucky to get fined for a defect that happened 2 mins before it’s for the greater good of society. Not gonna lose sleep over the smallest of probabilities. Dunno how you dudes survive real life with all this whining.

[zoom rader]

I just curious here eh op
Allyuh eh realize that all these steep fines are strictly about "revenue" collection by way of penalizing one of the largest cross section of citizens in the country and not about making the nation's roadways safer?
Ain't no money in it for the albino midget if they tell you to fix the problem and not squeeze the fine for trivial infractions out your pocket son. They want your money, and they don't care about you, so they have no motivation to consider any other alternative to bleeding you dry with ridiculous fines for even more ridiculous infractions.

Fines are for small people and non red government MPs

Whose going to lay a fine and demerit points on red government MPs and 1%.

Some lil Kool Lee boy or Kwame not going to risk their jobs laying a fine on big 5hit people.

If a police or LO want they can find any defect on your vehicle. No vehicle is clean.

[sMASH]

Unaffected.... I take care of my vehicles and if I’m so unlucky to get fined for a defect that happened 2 mins before it’s for the greater good of society. Not gonna lose sleep over the smallest of probabilities. Dunno how you dudes survive real life with all this whining.

living life 3 demerits at a time

[KM_2NR]

How much for basic number plate? Mine randomly broke this weekend , no idea how , a chunk from the corner missing. Y'all ever come back and see dents and scratches and broken number plates on your vehicles. Only in Trinidad

[j.o.e]

Unaffected.... I take care of my vehicles and if I’m so unlucky to get fined for a defect that happened 2 mins before it’s for the greater good of society. Not gonna lose sleep over the smallest of probabilities. Dunno how you dudes survive real life with all this whining.

dis man soundin like ah slave n he eva so greatful to massa for his rulez.
u tried 2 run away slave u know d price............
yes massa i is sorry i know d rule massa even if it unfiar.


he alone does maintain he car in d cuntry nah n he duz change he light bulb n fuse n led controlr every oil change. he hav magic foreshield on d windscren so gravel doh pitch up on d glass ah mile from d roadblock so he ever so grateful 4 d ticket if a bulb blow on random or a crack appaer on d glass. he cud tell d police he wud fix it n do it d same day becuz dat really out of anyone contrl.....dis is wat evryone sayin here......but dis man greatful2massa 4 d ticket n fines n demrit pointz becuz he know its wrong. thnks u massa u know d bess 4 we.



4 d man axin bout d numba palte i get in chagganas by d gas station near d flyover d vinyl plate $50 4 ah side.......

Nah .... I just don’t drive around with defects and anyone who acts like if police everywhere jumping out to ticket people living in dreamland. Trinidad police not that motivated ..... Trinis too slack and need to not act like “yea it go wuk so”
So everyone who get pulled over excuse will be “officer that now happen”

Keep up that sufferer attitude

[88sins]

@ joe
I get that you don't drive around with defective cars, kudos to you on that.
The problem is that a lot of the things that a person can be ticketed for are minor problems that can be fixed cheaply and that can happen suddenly or without the knowledge of the driver.
A taillight or reverse light bulb can blow on your vehicle while you driving at any time and you won't have a clue. You might not know for days that it's not working if nobody tells you about it. And if you get stopped in a road exercise at night, in cases when you might not have access to a spare bulb on the spot, to get a 1000 ticket for something like that is somewhat unjust, when you could be given a warning and time to fix the problem.

Granted, it have some real wutless people driving some vehicles that just looking at it might give you tetanus, but we not talking about those. Government can pull them off the road and crush them and sell them for scrap iron afaic. But the average driver with a decent vehicle that working fine and in otherwise good working condition, giving them an opportunity to fix a minor problem is better than forcing them to pay the state a ridiculous sum of money for such small violations, and would encourage them to try to keep a better eye on their vehicles and make sure that they are not defective before going on the road.

To make a driver pay $1000 ticket for a $3 bulb doesn't serve as a deterrent, and it makes no sense unless the goal for the ticket is to dig as deep as you can into drivers pockets for what little money they have.

[streetbeastINC.]

And all of a sudden in my car the dam horn malfunctioned....see me nervous to drive home from work...lol....

[j.o.e]

@ joe
I get that you don't drive around with defective cars, kudos to you on that.
The problem is that a lot of the things that a person can be ticketed for are minor problems that can be fixed cheaply and that can happen suddenly or without the knowledge of the driver.
A taillight or reverse light bulb can blow on your vehicle while you driving at any time and you won't have a clue. You might not know for days that it's not working if nobody tells you about it. And if you get stopped in a road exercise at night, in cases when you might not have access to a spare bulb on the spot, to get a 1000 ticket for something like that is somewhat unjust, when you could be given a warning and time to fix the problem.

Granted, it have some real wutless people driving some vehicles that just looking at it might give you tetanus, but we not talking about those. Government can pull them off the road and crush them and sell them for scrap iron afaic. But the average driver with a decent vehicle that working fine and in otherwise good working condition, giving them an opportunity to fix a minor problem is better than forcing them to pay the state a ridiculous sum of money for such small violations, and would encourage them to try to keep a better eye on their vehicles and make sure that they are not defective before going on the road.

To make a driver pay $1000 ticket for a $3 bulb doesn't serve as a deterrent, and it makes no sense unless the goal for the ticket is to dig as deep as you can into drivers pockets for what little money they have.

I hear what you’re saying. That would be unfortunate to be charged a lot for a small problem. I’m also saying that look at T&T and the way police function, the odds are very slim and most people who will run into this problem are the slackers. The heavy fines will make people all the more aware of maintenance and defects.
Trini police work on the road block strategy they hardly ever patrol and independently pull over vehicles, in all my years driving I’ve hardly had bulbs go out ..... only in my first car at 17 years old I can recall it happening more or less.
Odds are if you do a little self check you will be fine. There is a guy I bounced up on the highway in traffic a time, no rear lights, politely told him. He said thanks.
A whole month later guess what. No lights ..... I prefer the possibility of these ppl getting some repercussions then fussing over the slim chance that my bulb goes out 3 mins before a officer spot me. That’s all.

[sMASH]

^^ in a case like that, the citation to fix should be for a short duration. the ticket WAS issued, its just that it only gets enacted when the driver doesnt present the rectified defect by the end of the stipulated grace period.
with the e ticket system we have now, it would be automatic. to ensure the ticket does not get enacted would require the action of the ticket device to input that the problem was rectified.

so from the time the peopel get the ticket in the road block, the system would show the they DID get ticketed. but its pending per the defect rectifed and the system updated. if within the lil grace period they update it, the system would show that ticket so and so on so and so date was rectified so void. if it doenst get rectified by the time, the system would show that the ticket is enacted, fines applied, demerit points applied, time to court date etc.

the people getting their repercussions, but people who got their defect after they started to operate thier vehicle, still get a chance to rectify it without penalty.

nobody getting a bligh, its just that the system automatically becomes more reasonable. the mythological 'discretion' of the officer, now comes built into the system... less thinking for our ocifers to do. they will be happier

[elec2020]

^ whoever says that this demerit system isn't just the latest attempt by the government to tax/fine the bejezers out of us is lying to themselves. The demerit system got put in place during a time when government expenditure was very high and government revenue was low. During that period every week is some announcement of how much hundred traffic violations. If each violation brings i 1000. thats 100000 a week in fines. this is a strategy that the government has once again taken from the US. that is, using traffic violations as a major source of government revenue.

https://www.ntanet.org/wp-content/uploa ... aper_1.pdf

Anecdotal evidence suggests that local governments may have a revenue motive for traffic fines beyond public safety concerns. Using California county-level data over a 12-year period, this article presents findings that counties increased per capita traffic fines by 40 to 42 cents in the year immediately after a 10-percentage-point tax revenue loss in the previous year; however, these counties did not reduce traffic fines if they experienced tax revenue increase in the previous year. This finding indicates that local governments view traffic fines a revenue source to offset tax revenue loss, but not as a smoother to manage revenue fluctuation.

sounds erringly familiar no?

[Country_Bookie]

Exorbitant fines for vehicle defects or failure to have inspection sticker is really just a means of taxing poor people more heavily than rich people. Most wealthy people change cars every 4 to 5 years, and hence don't have to worry about their cars being inspected. Their cars are also likely to be more regularly serviced, hence less chance of a ticket for a vehicle defect.

Contrast that to poor people who are more likely to drive cars between 10 and 20 years old, and thus more likely to have trouble passing inspection or have some random defect pop up that goes unnoticed. They are also unable to afford to pay for a regular service which increases that chance.

A progressive tax system puts a heavier tax burden on the wealthy who can afford to pay more. Instead these vehicle defect fines are more likely to result in poor people paying fines, which is effectively a regressive tax system.

[adnj]

Exorbitant fines for vehicle defects or failure to have inspection sticker is really just a means of taxing poor people more heavily than rich people. Most wealthy people change cars every 4 to 5 years, and hence don't have to worry about their cars being inspected. Their cars are also likely to be more regularly serviced, hence less chance of a ticket for a vehicle defect.

Contrast that to poor people who are more likely to drive cars between 10 and 20 years old, and thus more likely to have trouble passing inspection or have some random defect pop up that goes unnoticed. They are also unable to afford to pay for a regular service which increases that chance.

A progressive tax system puts a heavier tax burden on the wealthy who can afford to pay more. Instead these vehicle defect fines are more likely to result in poor people paying fines, which is effectively a regressive tax system.

Any fixed rate tax or fine system (VAT, income, driving, etc.) is, by definition, regressive.