RTSA MAY WAIVE ‘SPEEDING’ FINES

THE Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has called for a meeting with Intelligent Mobility Solutions, the company that has been engaged to manage the speed camera system, regarding the possibility of waiving fines already slapped on motorists. RTSA Chief Executive Officer Zindaba Soko said the meeting set for today, would discuss modalities and iron out concerns from the public. Mr Soko said the roll out of the speed cameras was done amidst improper and lack of appropriate signage on the roads which the institution would seek to correct going forward. He said RTSA had since started putting up all the necessary signage on roads which have speed cameras. Speed limits on selected sections of roads such as Great East and Kafue Roads in Lusaka would be upgraded from the average 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, Mr Soko said. Mr Soko also said RTSA could reduce the K300 speed fine once it carried out a motor vehicle census which had already started. He said that the Road Safety ACT required that a census be conducted every 10 years although no census had been done since independence. Mr Soko told ZNBC News that the country had 765, 000 motor vehicles and only half were registered with RTSA. He said this made it difficult for RTSA to re-look at some fines and systems which the public were complaining about. Meanwhile, RTSA public relations manager Fred Mubanga said modalities were being put in place to address all concerns and all pitfalls associated with the speed camera project. Mr Mubanga said RTSA would communicate accordingly when a conclusion was reached whether to cancel the fines which had already been slapped on some motorists or not. Mr Mubanga said what was important was to put up a system to reduce the continued loss of lives through road traffic accidents due to excessive speeding of vehicles. He said the exercise of placing speed limit signage and cameras on selected roads started yesterday.