KINGSTON, Jamaica – Opposition Spokesman on Transport Mikael Phillips has called on the Government to exempt hackney contract and route taxi services from the law on child-restraint systems under the new Road Traffic Act until better arrangements are made to transport children, particularly in rural Jamaica.

Phillips made the call in a release Thursday in which he accused the government of using its parliamentary majority to “bulldoze and vote down several Opposition proposals aimed at improving the draft” of the new Road Traffic Regulations.

Responding to public concerns, particularly section 73 on child restraint systems, Phillips said the Opposition had proposed hundreds of amendments, most of which were defeated.

Phillips said application of the provision to public passenger vehicles (PPV) is impractical and burdensome on taxi operators.

He said although the provision was not new, successive governments by convention never enforced the rule on public transport operators, whether by buses or taxis.

“Neither the police nor transport authority inspectors has ever enforced, ticketed or prosecuted any offence in the section”, Phillips said.

Phillips stated that enforcement will also be costly and may inevitably lead to an increase in public passenger fares.

He said the Government had been warned about enforcing all provisions of the new Road Traffic Regulations without an adequate public education campaign to benefit operators, commuters and the general public, yet they stubbornly refused.

Phillips said, “The Government appeared bent on using the Road Traffic Regulations as a revenue measure, extracting high fees from the already overburdened taxpayers.”

He added that the only way to prevent the public passenger transport system from descending into chaos is to exempt hackney contract and route taxi services from Section 73, until better arrangements are made to transport children, particularly in rural Jamaica.

He said the Opposition fully supports measures to improve road safety and better driving habits, however we do not support the impractical implementation of legislation which leads to discontent, disobedience and the criminalization of the ordinary citizen.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding will table a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament to address the defects in Section 73 of the Road Traffic Act, according to the release.