Column: Jarion Richardson On Road Safety Bill
[Opinion column written by the OBA's Jarion Richardson]
The public was told that the Road Traffic and Motor Car [Road Safety and Penalties] Amendment Bill would be debated in the House of Assembly on Friday 17 June.
That debate did not take place because, instead of answering the Bill on its merits, proposing amendments or presenting replacement legislation, the Government sought a procedural ruling that would have stopped it before Second Reading.
In plain language, the Government tried to kill the road-safety Bill before it saw the light of day.
The House did not vote against the Bill. Members did not reject unannounced sobriety checkpoints, stronger consequences for dangerous road conduct or more effective treatment of accumulated demerit points. Those issues were never debated. Government did not seek to improve the proposals in Committee or offer a better legislative response of its own. It sought to prevent Parliament from considering them at all.
The Bill survived because the Speaker acted fairly. The Government was required to share the case it had placed before him, and the Opposition was afforded the opportunity to respond. The Opposition Leader, Deputy Leader and Whip argued that a sudden and potentially irreversible ruling should not be made without the Member responsible for the Bill having a proper opportunity to examine the Government’s material, answer its claims and address the wider parliamentary and public interest.
The Bill was therefore carried over. It was not defeated, withdrawn or removed from Parliament. It remains alive.
This matters because, after years of warnings, worsening statistics and repeated announcements, Government has not delivered the action Bermuda’s road crisis requires. Families continue to suffer death, serious injury and permanent disability. Police officers, emergency crews and hospital staff continue to manage the consequences, while responsible drivers and riders bear the human and financial costs created by a reckless minority.
The public has heard about strategies, reviews, cameras, enforcement initiatives and future plans. Yet announcements are not results. Meetings are not safer roads. Promises of future action do not protect the person travelling home tonight.
When the Opposition brought forward concrete legislation, Government had several legitimate choices. It could have supported the Bill, opposed it openly in debate, proposed amendments in Committee or introduced a stronger Bill of its own. It chose none of them. It tried to kill the legislation before the public could hear the arguments and before Parliament could perform the work it was elected to do.
The Government has raised a technical claim concerning the House’s financial procedures. That claim will be answered in the proper parliamentary forum, not through a running newspaper debate over Standing Orders and preliminary departmental calculations.
Over the summer, the Opposition will examine the Government’s position, test the figures and review the parliamentary authorities upon which it relies. We will distinguish costs genuinely required by the Bill from speculative assumptions, existing departmental responsibilities and implementation choices that Government has elected to attribute to the legislation. We will prepare a complete response for the Speaker and return in September ready to defend the Bill’s right to be debated.
The Bill is firm because the problem is severe. It provides for unannounced, senior-authorised sobriety checkpoints, stronger consequences for unlawful road conduct, effective accumulated-point procedures and statutory safeguards governing the exercise of police power. Government may disagree with particular penalties or procedures. That is precisely why Parliament has a Committee stage, where provisions can be examined, evidence considered and amendments made.
The proper response to an amendable Bill is to amend it. Government’s response was to try to kill it.
The Opposition remains committed to a practical and accountable approach to road safety. Police officers need usable powers, those powers must be exercised under clear legal safeguards, and dangerous conduct must carry meaningful consequences. Legislation must also operate alongside visible enforcement, education, safer roads, modern ticketing, reliable data and an effective court system.
The Bill is one part of that wider response, but it is a part Bermuda can no longer afford to avoid.
The Bill survived Friday, but survival is not success. Success will mean a proper Second Reading debate, detailed Committee scrutiny and effective legislation capable of reducing the harm on Bermuda’s roads.
We will use the summer to do the work. We will return in September prepared to defend the Bill and move it forward.
The Bill is alive. The road crisis remains. Bermuda will have its road-safety debate.
- Shadow Minister of National Security, Governance and Artificial Intelligence Jarion Richardson
All the Road Safety and Penalties enforcement is meaningless when the roads are crumbling and are by itself, a HUGE safety hazard! The real “road crisis” remains the roads!
These are different issues. Driving while intoxicated and speeding has nothing to do with the state of the roads (which are being steadily addressed).
Which is safer, and be honest.
1. Driving drunk on well maintained roads.
2. Driving drunk on poorly maintained roads.
No defection. 1 or 2.
And then there’s the 3000+ crashes per year where everyone else was drinking tea , coffee , juice , water etc !
“Driving while intoxicated and speeding has nothing to do with the state of the roads”
Perhaps not, but it certainly has something to do with the Bermuda Police Service ceasing to enforce the Road Traffic Act, or enforce it consistently, some 20 years ago.
Another piece of much needed legislation is blocked by Government Why?
Is it because the people it will most likely affect are also people likely to vote PLP? Look around and be honest, that lunatic on a bike who just blew past you at 80k, what is his profile?
This is not the only much needed legislation delayed by the PLP. Where is the revised Landlord Tenant Act and Rent Control Act that have been in the works for more than five years?
This legislation is supposed to give landlords fair treatment in the courts, replacing the grossly pro tenant biased current laws where taking a delinquent tenant to court is a waste of time and money.
This legislation was supposed to be dealt with this session in the HOA. It was not. Why? Which party is a tenant most likely to support?
Delays for political reasons not the good of Bermuda.