FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS FOR STIFF TRAFFIC FINES

MBABANE – It will no longer be a stroll in the park for both motorists and pedestrians as government has proposed an 800 per cent hike in traffic fines.

The days of simply paying E60 as an admission of guilt will soon be a thing of the past if Parliament adopts and passes the Road Traffic Regulations Notice of 2017.

The regulations which come with very steep fines were tabled by the Minister of Public Works and Transport Lindiwe Dlamini in the House of Assembly last week Thursday.
According to the proposed fines, a driver who fails to carry a drivers licence can be fined E500, while an unlicensed driver will pay a mind blowing E2 000.

According to the admission of guilt schedule, people who fail to wear a seatbelt will now be fined E200.
Currently most of the admission of guilt fines stand at E60.
The schedule which lists about 170 traffic offences, further comes with a heavy fine of E1 000 for failing to stop in compliance with a police or authorised officer.

Drivers of vehicles which pass another while it has stopped at a pedestrian crossing, will pay a whopping fine of E1 500 while jaywalkers will pay E200 from the current E60.
Reversing dangerously and excessively could also find a driver parting with E300, while failing to give way to a vehicle that has a lawfully sounding siren could see a driver paying E500.

The proposed schedule is expected to form part of the Road Traffic Act of 2007.
The last proposal which was tabled by former Minister of Public Works and Transport Ntuthuko Dlamini was tossed out by the 10th Parliament.  They stated that not even the ministry’s Parliament portfolio committee had been engaged before the regulations were tabled.

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