400.000 Drivers With
Expired Licenses Mob Driving Centres
The rush to obtain or renew a drivers
license began on Monday and continues as
thousands daily line up from the early hours
of the morning at the Cosevi offices in La
Uruca (San José) and regional centres across
the country. All to avoid being fined the
¢88.000 colones under the new Ley de
Tránsito for driving without a drivers
license.
The Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi)
estimates that 400.000 of the 1.8 million
registered drivers have their licenses
expired.
The reason for such a high number is that in
the past the fine for driving without a
license in hand or with an expired license
was only ¢2.000 colones and many admitted on
national television that is was just
laziness for not getting it renewed.
In 2009 alone the Policía de Tránsito
reports issuing 31.000 tickets for expired
licenses.
Germán Marín, the director of the Policía de
Tránsito said that many prior to March 1
preferred to pay the ¢2.000 colones fine
that waste their time to line at the Cosevi
to renew their license. "For many it was
similar to the cost of going out to a
restaurant", Marín said in an interview with
the La Nación.
However, that all changed at 12:01am Monday,
March 1, when the Ley de Tránsito multiplied
the fine by more than 40 times, which for
many represents a major portion of their
monthly salary.
The rush to avoid the fine has completely
saturated the Departamento de Licencias, in
La Uruca, who in its first day on Monday
attended 1.300 people. On Tuesday, licensing
office personnel started handing out numbers
and said would only attend the first 1.000,
as well as extending its hours of operation
from 8am to 6pm instead of closing at
4:30pm.
At La Uruca, people began lining up on
Tuesday morning from before the break of
dawn, some just coming minutes late to be
attended that day.
The same situation occurred at regional
licensing offices, although the number of
people at each centre was considerably
lower.
According to the Policía de Tránsito driving
with an expired license was the fourth major
cause of all tickets issued in 2009. Taking
first place in the number of tickets issued
for an offence last year was failure to obey
a traffic signal (86.087), seconded by
speeding (38.546) and in third place,
obstructing traffic (31.161).
All those infractions came with a ¢5.000
colones fine before March 1.
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