By KEILE CAMPBELL

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

GREGORY Ritchie, the former president of the Bahamas Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA), said some proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Act to ensure compliance with vehicle insurance requirements “doesn’t sound workable to our culture”.

Legislation tabled in the House of Assembly last week would require people to renew their insurance policies in their birth month.

Furthermore, people would not be able to renew their car licences with insurance policies that expire in less than six months.

Mr Ritchie called this “ridiculous” and “impractical”.

He also criticised the proposed requirement that insurers issue a notice of cancellation to the road traffic controller within 48 hours after a certificate of insurance has been cancelled, the failure of which would incur a fine of up to $5,000.

“The industry doesn’t work that way because we can cancel retroactively, so you cancel a policy. That’s a common thing because people who have significant premiums don’t always pay in full, so when they don’t pay the balance, our only option is to cancel,” he said.

“This will have a domino effect that will create a hardship, cause I can tell you right now we will just do away with financing, period, just to make sure that we don’t have to incur a fine.”

Mr Ritchie supports impounding unlicensed and uninsured cars.

“We’ve been pushing for that,” he said. “That’s what you do, that’s what they do in other countries: impound the vehicle, and then the onus is then on the vehicle owner to get it released by bringing insurance and license in order to have the vehicle released and then, of course, pay the appropriate fine, that is sufficient right there, that is all that is needed, that penalty alone which is fair, which is common to other countries is all that is needed.”

When asked why he thinks some Bahamians do not insure their cars, he said: “Don’t ever think for one minute that it’s because of lack of money. What we pay a year here is what they pay for a month in the US, and those Bahamians that travel there, they know that.”

“Bahamians find money for what they want to find money for.”

Current BIBA president Bruce Ferguson told The Tribune on Monday that he supports the government’s proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Act.