‘Scary’ number of unlicensed cars

Minister of International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss has expressed surprise about the number of unlicensed and unregistered vehicles, traversing Barbadian roads.

 

Whilst throwing his support behind a move by the Ministry of Transport and Works to bring on stream an Electronic Vehicle Registration System to 

crack down on these unlicensed vehicles, the St. James South Member of Parliament described the situation as “scary”.

 

“I was quiet taken aback when I saw the document stating that approximately  25 per cent of the vehicles on our roads in Barbados are unregistered...25 per cent, and I believe there are about 120 000 vehicles in the databaseof the (Ministry of Transport and Works) at Licensing Authority, which means that 

there are about 30 000 vehicles on the road in Barbados, that are currently unregistered,” Inniss remarked in the House of Assembly on Thursday.

 

“So if you take a drive from here to the UWI, one out of every four vehicles you see, are likely not to be registered. 

 

“Now that is a very scary thing, because it means that if an accident occurs, involving one of these vehicles, I don’t know who would be liable…There is a risk to the driver, there is a risk to the passenger, and there is a risk to the other road users,” Inniss stated.

 

He later suggested that it may be “the inefficiencies of government”, that frustrate individuals to the point where they don’t get around to registering their vehicles.

 

“I am not making any excuse for people breaking the law, but I will be very frank and say that going to Licensing Authority is not a walk in the park. Let’s be frank about that. It is something that has been a challenge to all governments over the years. Taking a day off from work to go into Licensing to register a 

vehicle is not easy. We talk about productivity in this country. To go and stand in a line in any government department today for two to four hours is unacceptable” Inniss declared.

 

Inniss however had high praise for the Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley, for pushing to bring the Electronic Vehicle Registration System on stream. 

 

Inniss acknowledged that it will make a difference in Barbados, as within a matter of seconds, information can be gathered by the relevant authorities 

about a vehicle in question, who is the legal owner, if there is a warrant out for the operator of the vehicle, if there are other infractions that have 

occurred and the relevant authorities he said, can take action there and then.