By Clint Chan Tack Friday, July 30 2010

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Banned: Texting while driving would be banned, as well as calls on hand-held mobile phones, Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner announced yesterd...

GOVERNMENT yesterday intensified its crackdown on lawlessness on the nation’s roads by announcing that the use of hand-held mobile phones while driving will be outlawed in Trinidad and Tobago.

In making this announcement at the post-Cabinet news conference, Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner declared that persons who breach this new law will be fined $5,000 or sentenced to two months in jail with hard labour.

Warner said these sanctions will be contained in a new amendment to the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act which will be made available by the Office of the Attorney General within 30 days and then taken to Parliament in the shortest possible time.

Under the legislation, Warner said the use of hand-held mobile phones in cars will become a statutory offence. He explained that a 1997 study in Canada showed that drivers using cellphones are 18 times more likely to cause accidents than drivers who do not.

Warner said the situation has become worse because “people are now text messaging while driving.” After the legislation is passed in Parliament, Warner said citizens will have a three month moratorium “to allow them to outfit their vehicles with gadgets that prevent them from having to use mobile phones.”

For those persons who do not make those adjustments to their vehicles, Warner said they have four options to avoid any legal sanction. Pull over, stop and talk; let a passenger speak for them; use voice mail and answer at a safer time or let someone else drive.

He also said head-sets and Blue Tooth devices would be allowed.

Warner noted that while mobile phones provide some conveniences to motorists, “I trust that our measures would far outweigh any inconvenience anyone suffers. “All of this would be towards the betterment of our road users.” Warner said consideration would also be given to the issue of motorists playing DVD movies while driving.

Arrive Alive director Kirk Waithe welcomed Warner’s announcement as “a step in the right direction.” He urged Government to consider the immediate use of radar technology to monitor the speed at which vehicles are travelling on the roads.

Waithe said an examination of the wreckage of vehicles from several accidents indicates that speed was a factor.

Apart from increasing the legal sanctions, Waithe said the police must be given the tools they need to enforce these laws. He identified radar guns and cameras as some of the devices which could be used.