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The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, Ar­rive Alive and mem­bers of the pub­lic are all sup­port­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s in­crease in fines for road traf­fic of­fences, say­ing it sends a strong mes­sage against ir­re­spon­si­ble and reck­less dri­ving.

Dur­ing his Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion in Par­lia­ment on Mon­day, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo an­nounced that fines for dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence (DUI) will move from $12,000 to $15,000, dri­ving while dis­qual­i­fied will in­crease from $1,500 to $5,000, and care­less dri­ving will climb from $1,000 to $15,000.

How­ev­er, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, while in op­po­si­tion, had crit­i­cised the then Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion for en­forc­ing harsh fines for traf­fic of­fences, say­ing they were rev­enue-dri­ven rather than fo­cused on road safe­ty.