TRANSPORT Commissioner Clive Clarke and Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan are reminding THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine that no one is above the law – including his family. They are reassuring Tobagonians that road traffic exercises are meant to help protect the public, not "terrorise" them as Augustine suggested.
Clarke and Sinanan were speaking at a press conference at the Ministry of Works and Transport's head office in Port of Spain on Thursday afternoon.
Last week, over 600 tickets were issued to drivers for traffic violations in road traffic enforcement exercises across Tobago.
During this, Augustine's wife – Taky-Ana Nedd-Augustine – was stopped and it was found that she did not have her driver's permit with her. This was confirmed by Augustine on TV6's Morning Edition programme on Thursday.
The exercises were a "co-ordinated effort" with Tobago police, according to Clarke.
At a post-executive council media briefing on Wednesday at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Tobago, Augustine described the exercises as “disruptive.”
Augustine said while licensing officers must do their job, there are “serious challenges that (he) must echo on behalf of the people of Tobago and, certainly, on behalf of this government.
"It should never be that we have hoards of officers coming up from Trinidad to terrorise Tobagonians. That should never be the case."
“We are seeing people turning up for minor things that we believe discretion could be used because, in the spirit of the law, there are discretionary powers assigned to the officers and that seems to not exist in Tobago’s case.”
He added that it seems there is a “mad rush” to issue tickets.
The ministry's Tobago Division of the Motor Vehicle Authority has since issued a summary report on a joint road traffic enforcement and education exercise done in ten areas across the island between April 13 and 19.
The report said 692 fixed-penalty notices were issued to drivers and 29 drivers were served with driver disqualification notices owing to accumulated demerit points.
The exercises were carried out by police from the Scarborough Traffic Section, Task Force, Shirvan Police Station with support from officers from Roxborough and Charlotteville police stations together with police Road Safety Co-ordinator Sgt Brent Batson and officers from the Licensing Division.
Clarke said during the educational exercise, 735 "pieces of literature" were distributed to drivers and passengers about road traffic safety.
In some instances, he said, officers went "door to door, house to house."
He said drivers with as many as 77 demerit points were found driving in Tobago, many driving without a driver's permit or using rented vehicles without the required insurance and drivers using "defective vehicles."
He said these exercises are done daily in Trinidad and it is "absolutely necessary" to do the same in Tobago.
"I have a responsibility, together with law enforcement officers, to ensure persons' safety."
He said many Tobagonians welcomed them and
