PRESIDENT Christine Kangaloo has made a passionate appeal for the government to revisit its plan to do away with the demerit points system for motorists.

Addressing the ceremonial opening of the 13th Parliament at the Red House, Port of Spain, on May 23, Kangaloo said the plan to scrap the system affected her personally as she had lost two of her siblings in car accidents.

“Demerits points systems, in general, have the goal of safeguarding road-users. Road accidents cause death and disabilities. They also cause unbearable mental anguish and long-lasting trauma. Sadly, many of us here, today, have felt this anguish and still live with this trauma,” she told parliamentarians and guests, who included Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the island’s Chief Justice Leslie Francis Haynes and former TT president Anthony Carmona.