Traffic Offenders Aren’t Criminals
Apr 16, 2003
A new system of instant traffic fines is being introduced. This is a very positive sign that should help save time, manpower and decongest the courtrooms.
A new system of instant traffic fines is being introduced. This is a very positive sign that should help save time, manpower and decongest the courtrooms.
Hitherto, traffic offenders have been treated like criminals. They have been arrested and locked up with hardcore criminals for hours before being charged, hours later only to be fined or cautioned.
Most traffic offenses are not serious cases of moral failure and are not crimes in the sense that there is usually no malice aforethought. They are not like robbery or murder where the criminal plans and executes his evil plan to deprive another person of life or property.
Traffic offenses are committed due to carelessness, ignorance or recklessness, rather than a wilful desire to do harm.
Traffic rules are put in place to control and manage traffic. The more the traffic the more abundant the regulations. There are rules about speed limits, designated parking areas, stringent mechanical conditions for motor vehicles and a lot of other details about driving and operating motor vehicles.
Where there is little or no traffic one can drive on any side of the road, park anywhere or do a host of other things without worrying about arrest because the Traffic police are not present.
On the other hand, commission of a crime is not dependent on whether one is in a populated area or not. It is not dependent on the presence or absence of the police.
Most crimes are moral wrongs as well and therefore the absence of the police does not make their commission any less serious. Ordinary people themselves will act as the police if need be.
It has therefore been a long-standing mistake to treat traffic offenders as if they were criminals. Arresting them and locking them up and sometimes remanding them is a primitive way of dealing with a modern development.
Traffic involves motor vehicles, which are a modern invention. They cost money and were made to try and save time.
By arresting, imprisoning and then fining a traffic offender, the system is in effect negating all the achievements that invention of a car was supposed to accomplish. Yet none of those effects is likely to benefit the state, the individual or the public for that matter.
Arresting a speeding driver may save his life but will definitely make him miss his appointment and make him more defiant. An instant sticker to pay a fine later acknowledges all these shortcomings in the administration of traffic.
The courts will be decongested of most of these trivial traffic offenses like wrong parking, expired license or driving permit and several others. If someone has forgotten to renew his license, please remind him gently with a fine.
This mode of paying fines ensures that the offender continues doing his job from where he will get the money to renew his license and pay the fine. It also ensures that the state gets the money with as little administrative expense as possible.
It also will make the penalties more predictable so that one knows what to expect if they risk committing a certain offense.
Previously, there have been complaints that a lot of the money collected as traffic fines and bail never makes it to the Consolidated Account.
It is alleged that magistrates had found a way of encroaching on it and getting away with it. Direct payment to the banks by the traffic offenders should help remit most of these fines to their final destination.
Of course the new system will present some problems in administering. A lot of discretion is still left with the traffic police to decide what amounts to levy on a particular motorist or if at all.
The offenders could find a way of going around payment by selling off their vehicles after accumulating huge sums in traffic stickers.
There is likely to be quite a number of bottlenecks in dealing with motorists who default on their fines.
All in all, however, these few bottlenecks in enforcement, are not comparable to the relief that the system will bestow on motorists and passengers in public vehicles. Ends
Hitherto, traffic offenders have been treated like criminals. They have been arrested and locked up with hardcore criminals for hours before being charged, hours later only to be fined or cautioned.
Most traffic offenses are not serious cases of moral failure and are not crimes in the sense that there is usually no malice aforethought. They are not like robbery or murder where the criminal plans and executes his evil plan to deprive another person of life or property.
Traffic offenses are committed due to carelessness, ignorance or recklessness, rather than a wilful desire to do harm.
Traffic rules are put in place to control and manage traffic. The more the traffic the more abundant the regulations. There are rules about speed limits, designated parking areas, stringent mechanical conditions for motor vehicles and a lot of other details about driving and operating motor vehicles.
Where there is little or no traffic one can drive on any side of the road, park anywhere or do a host of other things without worrying about arrest because the Traffic police are not present.
On the other hand, commission of a crime is not dependent on whether one is in a populated area or not. It is not dependent on the presence or absence of the police.
Most crimes are moral wrongs as well and therefore the absence of the police does not make their commission any less serious. Ordinary people themselves will act as the police if need be.
It has therefore been a long-standing mistake to treat traffic offenders as if they were criminals. Arresting them and locking them up and sometimes remanding them is a primitive way of dealing with a modern development.
Traffic involves motor vehicles, which are a modern invention. They cost money and were made to try and save time.
By arresting, imprisoning and then fining a traffic offender, the system is in effect negating all the achievements that invention of a car was supposed to accomplish. Yet none of those effects is likely to benefit the state, the individual or the public for that matter.
Arresting a speeding driver may save his life but will definitely make him miss his appointment and make him more defiant. An instant sticker to pay a fine later acknowledges all these shortcomings in the administration of traffic.
The courts will be decongested of most of these trivial traffic offenses like wrong parking, expired license or driving permit and several others. If someone has forgotten to renew his license, please remind him gently with a fine.
This mode of paying fines ensures that the offender continues doing his job from where he will get the money to renew his license and pay the fine. It also ensures that the state gets the money with as little administrative expense as possible.
It also will make the penalties more predictable so that one knows what to expect if they risk committing a certain offense.
Previously, there have been complaints that a lot of the money collected as traffic fines and bail never makes it to the Consolidated Account.
It is alleged that magistrates had found a way of encroaching on it and getting away with it. Direct payment to the banks by the traffic offenders should help remit most of these fines to their final destination.
Of course the new system will present some problems in administering. A lot of discretion is still left with the traffic police to decide what amounts to levy on a particular motorist or if at all.
The offenders could find a way of going around payment by selling off their vehicles after accumulating huge sums in traffic stickers.
There is likely to be quite a number of bottlenecks in dealing with motorists who default on their fines.
All in all, however, these few bottlenecks in enforcement, are not comparable to the relief that the system will bestow on motorists and passengers in public vehicles. Ends