THE Ministry of Home Affairs is running an advisory in the newspapers informing motorists and the police about the procedures involved when traffic offences are committed, and about the rights of motorists. This is an excellent initiative, even though long overdue, and those responsible should be applauded because the lack of clarity had spawned a disgusting bugbear for motorists for a long time.
Many motorists have been subjected to the crudest, most rude and discourteous behaviour from traffic cops when they commit even the most minor of traffic offences.
One of the most common illegal acts by these cops is seizing drivers’ documents and instructing them to drive to the police station. It is good therefore that the advisory has made it explicitly clear that the police have no right to seize documents, except if there is a suspicion that these are false.
Another major irritant is when drivers are told to report to a police station for a minor offence, for example, when the brakes lights stop working while a person is driving. Any reasonable person would know that it is impossible to realise that the brakes lights have stopped working unless someone else brings this to their attention.
But unreasonable cops have been in the habit of ordering drivers to sit in police stations for a day for such an infraction. This is simply being unreasonable, unjust and unfair.
The overloading of mini-buses is a big problem but why should innocent passengers suffer because of the greed of the drivers and conductors? Most times when police stop overloaded buses, they order passengers out and ask the drivers and conductors to go to a police station, leaving the passengers stranded, sometimes at the most difficult of spots and times to get transportation.
An advisable approach should be asking the drivers/conductors to discharge the extra passengers, take the others to their destinations before reporting to the police station for charge/charges to be laid. Innocent passengers should not be made to suffer because of errant bus drivers/conductors.
The advisory should help remedy several burning problems affecting motorists.
It is no secret that the main reason behind these excesses by errant cops is to create the pre-conditions for `greasing of the palms’ and this advisory will certainly help to make it more difficult for them to have their `palms greased’.
However, now that the ministry has made the first move in an effort to address the problem, the taxis and mini-buses associations should follow up by going on a vigorous campaign to educate their members about the advisory. One of the best ways to do this is to make copies of the advisory in the form of fliers which should be distributed to drivers who could paste these up prominently in their vehicles for reference. The fliers could also be placed as posters at vehicular parks and other public places.
Too often, authorities are accused of not doing enough to address various problems but, when they do, their efforts should be complemented by inputs from other stakeholders.
This will make the impact and effect much greater.