The Guyana Police Force (GPF) says it has intensified its campaign against vehicles with coloured lights.
Recently, four persons in Regional Division Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) were charged for failing to comply with the prescribed conditions attached to fitness – the section under which drivers using red and blue lights are charged.
Commanders of Region 4 Divisions ‘B’ and ‘C’ have addressed the issue within their respective divisions during separate appearances on the weekly ‘Police and You’ programme.
On June 8, Commander of the East Coast Demerara (ECD) Division Khali Pareshram said vehicles that are affixed with coloured lights are considered unfit and he warned that defaulting drivers will be prosecuted.
“We do have special operations to target those defaulters, especially in the nights across the division. Once they are found culpable, their certificate of fitness will be revoked,” the Commander said, noting that defaulting drivers can face the courts for this offence.
Meanwhile, Commander of East Bank Demerara (EBD) Mahendra Siwnarine also noted that ranks in his division conduct similar operations.
“Well as we know it’s illegal and I can say at the moment for my division, my traffic officers have started a campaign to actually deal with those lights…It’s an offence so persons are being charged for carrying those lights,” he affirmed.
“If the vehicles came with those lights…. after a period of time, you go in for fitness…so once you have (coloured lights), then you will not be given a fitness and once you are caught on the roadways with those lights, you are arrested and placed before the court,” the Commander made it clear.
There has been an apparent increase in the number of vehicles affixed with coloured lights which pose a danger to other road users. These lights can be blinding and distracting to other road users, and can lead to major accidents.
In April 2019, the GPF had issued a statement on the issue, warning that Regulation 34 (1) (a) of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, Chapter 51:02 states: “Every motor vehicle, the width of which does not exceed seven feet, other than a two-wheeled motorcycle not having a side car attached thereto and an invalid carriage, on any road, during the hours of darkness shall carry two lamps, each showing to the front a white light visible from a reasonable distance”.
