Hislop warns Tobago of post-election traffic crackdown

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

For­mer PNM sen­a­tor Lau­rence His­lop has warned To­bag­o­ni­ans strict en­force­ment of new traf­fic fines will be­gin im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the Jan­u­ary 12 THA elec­tion, ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of hold­ing back tick­et­ing on the is­land un­til vot­ing ends.

His­lop raised the claim while speak­ing at a PNM po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Rox­bor­ough, ques­tion­ing why en­force­ment ap­pears heav­ier in Trinidad than To­ba­go.

“I have to ask the ques­tion, why is it that when the year turn around, the po­lice and un­li­censed of­fi­cers and them, bad in Trinidad, but every­body play nice in To­ba­go,” he said.

His­lop sug­gest­ed en­force­ment would in­ten­si­fy once the polls close. “Mon­day’s elec­tion and I’m telling you on the 13th of Jan­u­ary, some­body could end up with a $19,000 tick­et,” he said.

The Gov­ern­ment has main­tained in­creased traf­fic fines form part of a broad­er road safe­ty strat­e­gy aimed at curb­ing dan­ger­ous dri­ving and re­duc­ing road deaths, re­ject­ing claims en­force­ment is be­ing ap­plied se­lec­tive­ly.