Public grapples with traffic fee hikes

Lee An­na Ma­haraj

leean­na.ma­[email protected]

As the pub­lic grap­ples with the se­ries of gov­ern­ment no­tices that took ef­fect on Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, traf­fic fines have drawn the strongest back­lash. Some cit­i­zens have said the in­creas­es came as a shock and de­scribed them as dras­tic. While the Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion has yet to pub­lish a com­pre­hen­sive list of all the changes, Guardian Me­dia cross-ref­er­enced the avail­able da­ta to com­pile the fol­low­ing list of fee in­creas­es.

Cab­i­net has ap­proved a pro­pos­al for a new mo­tor ve­hi­cle tick­et warn­ing sys­tem, which is set to be pre­sent­ed to Par­lia­ment in the com­ing weeks. Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our said the sys­tem will in­clude a three- or sev­en-day grace pe­ri­od al­low­ing mo­torists to cor­rect ve­hi­cle de­fects be­fore fac­ing harsh­er penal­ties, align­ing with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­cent an­nounce­ment of re­lief mea­sures.

90. Us­ing or caus­ing to be used or per­mit­ting a per­son to use a mo­tor ve­hi­cle or li­cenced trail­er on a pub­lic road with­out a valid pol­i­cy of in­sur­ance

Speed­ing fees dou­bled

Traf­fic Vi­o­la­tion

Pre­vi­ous Penal­ty

In­creased Penal­ty

by 1 to 9 km per hour $1,000 to $2,000

by 10 to 20 km per hour $1,500 to $3,000

by 21 to 30 km per hour $2,000 to $4,000

by 31 km or more per hour $3,000 to $6,000

12. Of­fences of dri­ving in­struc­tor-Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic Act, Chap. 48:50, sec­tion 46

89. Use of Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route by Unau­tho­rised Ve­hi­cle

36. Fail­ing to ob­serve re­stric­tions on pedes­tri­an cross­ings.

1. Us­ing or al­ter­ing a mo­tor ve­hi­cle or trail­er for a pur­pose not au­tho­rised by the reg­is­tra­tion or Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty.

5. Use of a mo­tor ve­hi­cle un­der a deal­er’s li­cence by a per­son oth­er than a deal­er.

7. Rid­ing a mo­tor­cy­cle with­out a safe­ty hel­met.

8. Fail­ure of a dri­ver and any pas­sen­ger sev­en­teen years and over to wear a seat belt while the ve­hi­cle is in mo­tion.

9. Dri­ving a ve­hi­cle with a per­son in the front seat who is not wear­ing a seat belt.

10. Dri­ving a ve­hi­cle with a child in the front seat who is five years and un­der.

11. Fail­ing to place a child who is five years and un­der in a child re­straint or boost­er seat in the ve­hi­cle while dri­ving the ve­hi­cle.

14. Mo­tor rac­ing and speed tri­als be­tween mo­tor ve­hi­cles with­out per­mis­sion.

17. Fail­ing to com­ply with the di­rec­tive of a po­lice con­sta­ble

19. Fail­ing to com­ply with a traf­fic light sig­nal

20. Fail­ing to com­ply with a traf­fic light sig­nal cap­tured un­der Part VA

38. Fail­ure to pro­duce a ve­hi­cle for in­spec­tion/Dri­ving a ve­hi­cle with­out a valid in­spec­tion stick­er and cer­tifi­cate

39. No Tare and MGW paint­ed on ve­hi­cles

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

44. Ve­hi­cle with­out two head­lamps

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

45. Ve­hi­cle with­out park lights

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

46. Ve­hi­cle with­out tail lights

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

47. Ve­hi­cle with unau­tho­rised spot or swiv­el lights

50. Re­vers­ing at the junc­tion of roads or around a cor­ner in the City of Port-of-Spain or San Fer­nan­do

51. Quit­ting the ve­hi­cle be­fore ap­ply­ing brakes and switch­ing off en­gine

52. Fail­ing to keep ve­hi­cle to the left on the road

53. Im­prop­er over­tak­ing on the left side of the road

54. Ob­struct­ing over­tak­ing traf­fic

55. Im­prop­er over­tak­ing on the right, cut­ting in

56. Over­tak­ing traf­fic at a place dan­ger­ous to do so

60. Park­ing with­in three me­tres of the front of a fire sta­tion

64. Per­mit­ting ex­cess sparks, smoke or vis­i­ble vapour to come from ve­hi­cle

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 7 days)

66. Over­crowd­ed ve­hi­cle

67. Car­ry­ing per­sons in a dan­ger­ous man­ner

69. Fail­ing to draw up a ve­hi­cle for the pas­sage of any en­gine or oth­er ap­pa­ra­tus of the Fire Ser­vice, Po­lice Ve­hi­cles, De­fence Force Ve­hi­cles or Am­bu­lances.

75. Use of ve­hi­cle with de­fec­tive tyres

77. Play­ing a mu­si­cal or noisy in­stru­ment in a ve­hi­cle with­out per­mis­sion of the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty

78. Dri­ving a ve­hi­cle on a foot­path or pave­ment

86. Stop­ping or park­ing or dri­ving a mo­tor ve­hi­cle on a sur­veil­lance bay

91. Unau­tho­rised dri­ving or park­ing with­in Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah

92. Unau­tho­rised dri­ving or park­ing with­in Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah

93. Ve­hi­cle paint­ed in such a man­ner as to be mis­tak­en for a maxi-taxi

94. Dri­ving while hold­ing or us­ing a hand-held mo­bile de­vice

95. Hold­ing or us­ing a hand-held mo­bile de­vice while su­per­vis­ing the hold­er of a pro­vi­sion­al per­mit

96. Us­ing a wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion de­vice to view, send or com­pose an elec­tron­ic mes­sage while dri­ving or hav­ing charge of a ve­hi­cle

2. Pub­lic Ser­vice Ve­hi­cle car­ry­ing ex­cess pas­sen­gers

28. Mo­tor­cy­clist hold­ing on­to an­oth­er mov­ing ve­hi­cle

29. Mo­tor­cy­clist rid­ing with no hands on the han­dle­bar

32. Unau­tho­rised park­ing on the grounds of a pub­lic build­ing

34. No iden­ti­fi­ca­tion plate fixed to the front or back of the ve­hi­cle

42. Unau­tho­rised lights to the front or rear of ve­hi­cle

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

43. Unau­tho­rised let­ters and fig­ures on ve­hi­cle

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

49. Re­vers­ing on roads for an un­rea­son­able dis­tance

65. Ve­hi­cle car­ry­ing ex­ces­sive pro­jec­tion

72. Ve­hi­cle with­out a re­flect­ing mir­ror

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

73. Ve­hi­cle car­ry­ing un­se­cured load

79. Pub­lic Ser­vice ve­hi­cle with­out spare tyre

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

80. Pub­lic Ser­vice ve­hi­cle im­por­tun­ing of pas­sen­ger

81. Taxi dri­ver un­suit­ably at­tired

84. Fail­ing to oc­cu­py va­cant space in taxi stand

85. Park­ing in a pub­lic stand ap­point­ed for taxi

61. Neg­li­gent­ly or wil­ful­ly in­ter­rupt­ing the free pas­sage or caus­ing an un­nec­es­sary ob­struc­tion

70. Tow­ing oth­er than a mo­tor ve­hi­cle with­out writ­ten per­mis­sion of the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty

83. Taxi un­at­tend­ed at head of taxi stand

57. Park­ing with­in nine me­tres of a cor­ner

58. Draw­ing up along­side an­oth­er ve­hi­cle; back­ing a mo­tor ve­hi­cle to a kerb or road­side

59. Park­ing with­in three me­tres of a fire hy­drant

68. Leav­ing a bro­ken-down ve­hi­cle on road un­at­tend­ed

40. Ve­hi­cle with de­fec­tive fit­tings

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

71. Length of tow rope ex­ceed­ing five me­tres

88. Fail­ing to pro­duce a taxi dri­ver’s badge and li­cence on de­mand

30. Throw­ing or dis­trib­ut­ing ad­ver­tise­ments or hand­bills from a ve­hi­cle.

35. No iden­ti­fi­ca­tion lights for the il­lu­mi­na­tion of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion marks on ve­hi­cle at night.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

37. The num­ber of pas­sen­gers to be car­ried not print­ed on the right front door of taxi.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

48. No “left-hand dri­ve” no­tice af­fixed to the ap­pro­pri­ate ve­hi­cle.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

62. Fail­ing to draw up as close as pos­si­ble to the side of the road.

63. Ve­hi­cle with­out horn.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

74. Use of noisy ve­hi­cle.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 7 days)

76. Use of a ve­hi­cle with no wind­screen wiper or a de­fec­tive wiper.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

82. Plac­ing of ad­ver­tise­ment on side of win­dow of taxi.

(Pro­posed grace pe­ri­od: 3 days)

87. Fail­ing to pre­serve taxi dri­ver’s badge against loss, de­struc­tion or de­face­ment.