By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

INSURANCE policies that are valid for less than six months cannot be used to licence vehicles when amendments to the Road Traffic Act take effect on January 1, 2025.

New provisions would also allow police officers to seize uninsured and unlicensed vehicles and require owners to pay $300 to release their cars. 

An amendment bill tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday also said only the police commissioner can release the car once owners provide proof of payment and/or a valid insurance certificate or licence.

The bill also empowers the police commissioner to sell a vehicle that has been seized for more than a year and use the funds to cover the cost of removing and impounding the vehicle. 

Yesterday’s bill comes months after top traffic officials called for stricter traffic laws regarding uninsured vehicles, noting that fifty per cent of cars in accidents last year were uninsured.

Most of the uninsured vehicles comprised small, imported vehicles, according to Chief Superintendent of Police David Lockhart, who previously headed the traffic division.

He said some people had been getting temporary cover notes to license their vehicles without completing the insurance process.

Under the amendment bill, new licensing rules would require owners to produce an insurance policy no older than six months.

The bill said the policy “would not be accepted if the policy of insurance expires within six months of the date of application for licensing the motor vehicle.”

Additionally, the bill addresses insurance cancellations, mandating that vehicle owners report this to the controller within five days of the cancellation date.

“The insured person shall at the time of the cancellation surrender the certificate of insurance to the authorised insurer and within five days of the date of cancellation report the cancellation to the controller and provide evidence of the reason for cancellation,” the bill says.

Under the legislation, the authorised insurer must issue a notice of cancellation to the controller within forty-eight hours of the certificate of insurance being cancelled.

Failure to comply could incur a fine not exceeding $2,500 or a three-month prison sentence for the vehicle owner and a fine up to $5,000 for the authorised insurer.