Driving without seatbelts, and driving while on your cell phone- they're both unsafe driving habits - but they are almost a Belizean way of life - even if they do cause countless accidents and traffic fatalities every year. Well, in December of 2023, new traffic laws were introduced to make all that illegal.
Of course, we know, it's Belize…end enforcement is always lax, if not altogether absent. But, this time may be different. A grace period was given for everyone to get up to speed with the news regs, but that ended in March 2024. And now, police, traffic and transport officers are enforcing the new laws. They require that ALL persons in a motor vehicle must wear seat belts AT ALL TIMES, and that drivers cannot be on their phones and must use a hands free device while operating a motor vehicle.
We spoke to the commissioner about how this is going to be enforced a short time ago:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I think that regulation came into force first of March this year. It certainly gives the police and the traffic wardens the authority in law to be able to issue violation tickets for any person who is found to be driving a motor vehicle, not wearing a seat belt or persons who are on a cell phone while they're driving."
"So it is a good thing. I must say that many of times we see people committing these infractions. I myself do it at times, so I have to make the adjustment as well. As you would know, I am a person who traverses the country a lot and if I know I'm going somewhere that I will return home later than expected, I would not take my driver because you have to go home to his family."
"So I would normally drive myself and when I do drive myself, I still have to be paying attention to the phone. Messages are coming in, calls are coming in. So I have my vehicle when I connect the phone to the vehicle, there is an application on my phone that allows the phone to read the text."
"So that is good and I also use the application where I can speak to the phone on the phone, write the text messages and then just say send it. So there is that hands-free capability with the phone once connected to the vehicle, but it still is a distraction at times."
"So again, it's just a matter for us to make that adjustment and make sure that we comply with the regulations. In terms of the seat belt, we know that there have been many instances where seat belts do save lives."
"We have had a number of traffic fatalities in our highways and so it is important that drivers as well as passengers in vehicles wear the seatbelt. It is to save your own life should the need arise."
Reporter
"Do you feel like these SI's should have been in place long before March though? In many other countries they already look at things like these?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well there had been the the law that dealt with the issue of seatbelts but I think the previous law addressed highways. The new law address not only highways but even if you're within city or town limits and so that's a change in the regulation."
"We can always look in hindsight and say that something could have been done long ago but I don't think that it came too late. It is still timely and moving forward it will save lives for sure."
The fine for not wearing a seat belt is $50.00, while those caught driving while operating a cell phone face a fine up to $500.00 dollars and the possibility of 6 months imprisonment.
