On Friday, the police department held its annual auction, where the main items up for grabs were motorcycles. But this means that there will be more motorcycles on the road without verifying if the buyers are qualified to drive them safely. And this is happening at a time when the government is trying to crack down on reckless driving involving motorcycles.
The PM explained last week that the two things - the auction and the government's proposed regulations - have nothing to do with each other. But he added that while they may revise some of the regulations, there still needs to be a change to lessen the number of accidents on the road.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It's important for me to make the point. In Cabinet we were frustrated and sometimes angry about all of these accidents we have with these motorcycles. In many instances, these accidents happen because the drivers of these cycles are reckless and then they endanger their lives and endanger others. It's tragic enough when they get killed but to me it's even more tragic when they get into a bad accident and they can't work, they're in a bed, they break their back, they lose their feet or something. So we in our frustration and wanting to do something, we felt that maybe we should just have everyone to take the training. Obviously, when you look back, you have a 2020 vision, you start to say hold on maybe it's a bit excessive. So that's the discussion we're having in cabinet that we need to pull it back. One of the things that came to my attention is that, for instance, United States, whenever you renew your license, you have to take the test again. So maybe that's something that we could start with. One that whenever you will renew everybody, including. Not only motorcycles, but even cars and trucks and everything that you take that written test just to ensure, to bring back into your memory what are the laws, and to do that. So that's one step that we'll be looking at. Secondly, the minister is saying the technical people that take can look at it, but the recommendation that maybe we should look at, say maybe cyclists that have had a license for more than two years and have not gotten into any accident or anything. Maybe we don't need to require them to take the lessons, or maybe just the new persons coming on board."
