News

Large fine for not giving way

PERSONS WHO REFUSE to give way to an emergency vehicle can be ticketed and fined up to $2,500, police tell THE STAR.

Deputy Superintendent Byron Powell of the Police Traffic Division told THE STAR that the fine can be paid at a tax office or the person ticketed can attend court if they choose to contest the ticket.

DSP Powell said there are two types of vehicles which must be given right of passage in an emergency and those are a firetruck going to a fire or the scene of an accident, or an ambulance, police vehicle, or vehicle commissioned by the police going to the scene of a crime or accident or on an emergency run.

Stop

In giving right of passage to emergency vehicles, DSP Powell explained that motorists must pull to the near left and STOP until the emergency vehicle passes. Many motorists, he says, slow down to let the emergency vehicles pass but under the law they can be guilty of an offence if they do not stop.

Powell could not remember an incident where someone was ticketed for this offence however. "Most time the police are on emergency so even if a vehicle did not want to give them right of passage, they don't have the time to stop and ticket that person," DSP Powell explained.

Many motorists have complained that police going on emergencies take away their licenses and then tell them to collect them at a police station. However, Powell says this is illegal.

"Police can't take away a motorist's license and go away with it because the motorist failed to give them right of passage," he said. "If they needed it for some other investigations, fine, but not because of that."

He recommended that motorists who suffer this fate should report the matter the Police Public Complaints Authority so the matter can be investigated and the appropriate action taken.