Higher fines will be useless without more enforcement
Parliament voted in favour of the second reading of a Bill on Wednesday, which will introduce harsher traffic fines and penalties for a variety of road-related offences.
Among the changes, which were announced earlier this year, the fine for a person found guilty of driving through a red light will increase from €100 to €200. The fine for speeding over 15 km/h over the speed limit will increase from €69.88 to €100. The use of mobile phones, earphones or over-ear headphones “in the ear facing the window and while stationary” will be increased to €200 or €300 (depending on the vehicle) from the current €100.
The penalty points system for licenses will also see some changes, as the use of mobile phone will have its parameters increased from 3-6 points to 6-9 points. Additionally, the use of headphones will also see an increase from 3-6 points to 6-9 points.
The vote was on the second reading of the bill, thus meaning that the amendments have not yet become law. It will now go to Parliamentary Committee stages, where changes can be made, before returning to the House for a final vote.
In principle, the increase in fines is to be welcomed. With 26 deaths last year – the highest ever recorded in a single year – it was clear that something had to be done, and this is one such thing which can act as a deterrent for dangerous driving.
It isn’t generally the ideal solution to have to resort to negative reinforcement – rather than positive reinforcement – in order to achieve a change in the approach to things.
In the case of road safety this was the only course of action : how long are we going to keep mounting adverts and awareness campaigns before realising that people might only listen when the effect on them is greater?
Realistically then, in today’s Maltese society, the people’s wallet generally has one of the loudest voices. Threaten to touch that, and you may actually start getting people to think twice.
For the government to realise that this is the course of action to take – even if some may not be happy to pay more in fines – is to be commended.
However there is a caveat. One can have the best laws, and the highest fines – but they are useless without having the strong enforcement to match them. Unfortunately, we will not be breaking any major news in saying that enforcement is always the drawback to anything being done in Malta.
When the proposed fine increases were announced back in February, it was said that current enforcement by the police and LESA will not increase. This is where we risk losing the essence of what these legal changes intend to bring.
What is the use of having higher fines, when many offences will still go unpunished because the offender isn’t caught?
It should be said that these legislative changes are not introducing new penalties, but rather building on what already exists. 26 people still died in road-related accidents last year, even while all of these penalties already existed.
Therefore it stands to reason to conclude that for 26 people to have died – as well as for countless others to have been injured – on Malta’s roads, then the enforcement of the existing road laws was not up to scratch.
Hopefully when this Bill passes – as it is expected to, not least because it has cross-party support in Parliament – we will see an increase in the investment in the enforcement of these same traffic laws, so that we can truly see Malta have safer roads in the near future.