"Señores Basta!"
Transport Minister Cries
Out For Approval Of New
Transit Law
The Ministerio de Obras
Públicas y Transportes
(MOPT) has declared war
on bad and irresponsible
drivers and is gearing
up to push ahead the
approval of the new Ley
de Tránsito (traffic
laws) that severely
punished reckless and
drunk drivers with the
same severity as someone
picking up a gun and
shooting someone.
That is the word from
the MOPT minister, Karla
González, who said "we
are losing the battle of
the violence on our
roads".
Minister González added
that traffic accidents
don't discriminate
social class, age,
religion or the sex of
the 600 people that on
average die each year on
our roads.
Semana Santa (Easter
Week), vacation seasons
and long weekends are
traditional periods
where blood spills on
the highways.
According to Marco
Vargas, head of the
trauma centre at the
Hospital Nacional de
Niños (Children's
hospital), some 1.600
children a year come to
the hospital with some
form of trauma caused
from traffic accidents,
15% of which are serious
and 12% losing their
battle to survive.
Legislator Jorge Méndez,
who heads up the
Comisión de Asuntos
Jurídicos, which is
where the Ley de
Tránsito now sits, said
that the commission is
in its final
discussions, being hung
up on motion 137, before
legislators can vote on
the law.
Although the text of the
law has been modified
somewhat in the two
years since it was
presented, the main
thrust of the bill -
stiffer penalties and
fines - is still intact,
according to Méndez.
Some of the provisions
included in the new Ley
de Tránsito are raising
the current fines 20 or
more times, stiff
penalties for drinking
and driving that could
see a driver going to
jail if causing a death
while driving
intoxicated, heavy
penalties for reckless
driving, stiff fines for
talking on a cellular
phone while driving and
not using the mandatory
seatbelts.
Drivers with more than
0.75 alcohol to blood
limit would face jail,
as well as those
involved in street drag
racing, especially in
the case of an accident
resulting in death.
One provision that is
facing opposition is the
motion by legislator
Alexander Mora, who
wants to see bar an
cantina owners being
held responsible for
customers who leave
their establishment
drunk and then get
behind the wheel. Mora's
motion pretends to
extend the bar owners
the same liability as
the driver. |
