Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), Roy Raphael, is requesting an urgent meeting with Director of Citizen Engagement and Media Relations in the Prime Minister’s Office, Roy Morris, to stave off “chaos” come September 1.
Yesterday at the Wildey Gymnasium in St Michael, Morris met with the media, where one of the issues he sought to clarify was the tint and public service vehicles (PSVs).
“We have people from the PSV fraternity who come in and are asked to be tested and they’re upset. Well, as far as we know and our instructions are, the law says PSVs are not to have any tint. When they go to MTW (the Ministry of Transport and Works), to be registered, they don’t have on any tint but they put on tint afterwards.
“So, we are not going to test [PSVs] or the level of tint on them because by law, there’s not supposed to be any tint. We are not going to tell them they have a 20 per cent tint or a 25 per cent tint that conforms with the law because they’re not allowed to have tint,” he said.
However, Raphael, who first raised the alarm in Monday’s DAILY NATION, remained unconvinced and
maintained the country was headed for trouble.
“I think the regulation that he’s talking about is the old 1984 regulation, where no PSVs were supposed to have tint but this new regulation does not speak to public service vehicles specifically; it speaks to all vehicles. When a new regulation is amended, when the Road Traffic Act or a regulation is amended and I’m subject to correction, it replaces the old one. In this case, the old one speaks to public service vehicles not having tint but the new regulation speaks to all vehicles, so it should include PSVs having tint. So, that’s why he said the law is not clear and because it is not clear, it’s going to cause chaos on the first of September,” he said.
Raphael said there were 1 200 PSVs in service and more than half had tint, so trying to get them all to remove it would be a mammoth task, which would result in members of the public suffering. He said PSV operators regularly went to the Barbados Licensing Authority with tint and there were no issues.
“I am telling you, if this matter is not thoroughly resolved and sorted out, we are going to ask commuters to expect delays.
“I need Mr Morris to get in touch with the association for us to go through the regulation clearly, because presently, PSVs go to The Pine to get tested, but I’m not hearing of any person who failed because they had tint on their vehicle, but I’m subject to correction,” he said, adding he was consulting an attorney.
A source confirmed what Morris said, adding the 1984 regulations were still in force.
“You have to look at the 1984 Road Traffic Regulations.
There’s a section that speaks of the construction of PSVs and what they are supposed to have and not supposed to have. Since then, no amendment has been made about the construction of PSVs, so that’s something that they will have to take up with the Chief Technical Officer, but as far as I am concerned, [the 1984 Regulations] still stand in terms of the construction of PSVs,” he said.
The source also spoke about the penalties for having tint which is too dark after September 1. He said those found guilty were subject to a $500 fine with a $10 penalty imposed every day they do not comply, but it was up to a magistrate to impose additional penalties for non-payment, which could include jail time.
(CA)
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