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Traffic Law Reforms Stuck In
Congress; Only 125 of 6.924 Fines Paid
Errors and brushes with unconstitutionality
have stalled in the Legislature the reforms
to the new Ley de Tránsito.
The review by the Comisión de Servicios
Técnicos de la Asamblea Legislativa found
the reforms to contain a number of errors
and contradictions wit the Constitución
Política and now it will be up to
legislators to correct, in a hurry, and vote
on the changes before this assembly
dissolves at the end of April or send it
back to the commission, leaving the work for
the new Legislative Assembly that takes over
on May 8.
For his part, Jorge Méndez, head of the
Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) party, is
to get the job down now, make the
corrections and approve the reforms that are
the work of this assembly.
However, that will not be so easy.
For the reforms to carry in second vote
(they have already been approved, although
with errors, in first vote) it requires the
approval vote of 38 legislators.
The head of the Partido Acción Ciudadana
(PAC) party, Alberto Salom, assures that his
party will vote in favour of the
corrections, but not the reform.
The major points of the reforms that were
made to the law that went into effect on
March 1, 2010, are the elimination of the
point system, the reduction of fines and
decreased sanctions against drunk and
reckless drivers.
Legislators could not come to a consensus on
the changes prior to the March 1 deadline,
thus the law went into effect and the
Policía de Tránsito began applying the new
rules of the road.
However, the application of the law is now
in limbo as legislators continue to work on
the reforms and court challenges have begun
by those drivers who have been issued
tickets since March 1.
The office of the Impugnación del Ministerio
de Obras Públicas y Transportes reports that
to date there 280 appeals beofre them.
According to Carlos Rivas, legal counsel for
the Cosevi, the majority of the appeals are
for tickets issued for infringing the
vehicular restrictions of San José, tinted
windows, not using the seatbelt and talking
on a cellular phone while driving.
All the aforementioned items were prohibited
prior to March 1, 2010. However, on March 1,
the fines for the offences passed from the
maximum of ¢20.000 colones to more than
¢200.000 colones for tinted windows, for
example.
The reforms under discussion and now with
constitutional problems would only reduce
the amount of the fines and not the
prohibition.
According to Cosevi, to date Tránsito have
issued 6.924 tickets from March 1, of which
only 125 have been paid. |
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