Police to probe use of car speakers

Head of the traffic division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Superintendent Courtney Coubrie, said they will have discussions with the Island Traffic Authority about launching an investigation into the practice of persons placing speakers on the outside of their vehicles.

THE STAR news team has noticed several motor vehicles in the corporate area with speakers on the outside; some even seeming to be replacing windows.

Coubrie said that the practice was not something of which he was aware, but it could violate the Noise Abatement Act and therefore requires an investigation.

He said the investigation will try to ascertain how this practice violates the act and how widespread it is.

Head of the Island Traffic Authority, Ludlow Powell, said that it is illegal to replace windows with speakers, and no depot in the island should grant any such vehicle a pass.

“What you are seeing on the road is people are playing the music for others to hear it. It is a temporary thing that they do, and it is noise pollution,” he said.

According to Powell, the issue of noise pollution along roadways will be addressed in the new traffic act that is currently before the House of Representatives.

“Remember, we are operating on a road traffic act that is deficient in many ways because it is coming from 1938. The bill that is before the house will address a number of these issues, and one of them is noise pollution [from vehicles],” Powell said.