60km/hr speed limit

Yet, human rights still need to be discovered and valued, they may not be always apparent where they come from.

SACHIDA NATH

Nadi

IT was not very long ago when a vehicle owner came over to Suva to have his newly-painted vehicle inspected by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Fiji at Valelevu for the yearly certification. The vehicle was a two-tonne truck and was registered as a commercial vehicle. However, the vehicle failed the inspection as it did not have 60km/hr printed at the rear.

I asked the LTA inspector whether it was a legislated requirement and he said ‘yes’. When further probed as to the law or the section that he was referring to, the vehicle inspector could not provide further details but only mentioned that the relevant information could be found in the Land Transport Vehicle Regulation and Construction Regulation 2000 but found no other details and mention of the 60km/hr.

Whether it is law or not, I believe that such directions do not serve any purpose in real time.

It is an obsolete requirement and may have been valid about half a century ago and such archaic legislations must be reviewed to make it current and suit the present.

Many buses, semi-trailers and other heavy goods vehicles carry such displays but none crawl that slow.

With better roads, the drivers, police and LTA officers only adhere to the speed limits and enforce accordingly.

It may be hilarious to think of a driver booked for not adhering to the ancient 60km/hr lawful instruction.

Another farcical directive in our road code is the use of the ridiculous hand signals that existed before the invention of the trafficators.

If you are pulling out, you need to stick out your arm through the window and if you are stopping, then again you will need to poke your arms in an ‘L’ formation.

Manoeuvering left or right again involves your right arm.

It may not be compulsory to practise such laws but it is in our road code.

As a country, there has been a lot of improvement in the traffic management process but, I believe, we still prefer to engage in many non-value-adding laws that the lawmakers have failed to rectify in a timely fashion.

SATISH NAKCHED

Suva