Urgent Cultural Change Required, Says Top Traffic Cop
February 22nd, 2010 | by admin |The ideal is that drivers adopt a responsible behaviour when they get behind the wheel. But the reality suggests otherwise, according to the director of the Policía de Tránsito, Germán Marín, the country’s top traffic cop.
“We have a situation of road ignorance. We see it every day, dramatic events occur when people drive under the influence of alcohol and committing other actions that many drivers do not consider important”, Marín said in a recent interview with the daily Al Día.
“Responsible drivers do not care if there is a traffic officer nearby or that the fines are too high”, said Marín.
The new Ley de Tránsito that goes into effect on March 1, 2010, has many up in arms that the fines are too high and that the penalties for drinking and reckless driving are too harsh.
Although legislators are currently discussing reducing the fines called for in the legislation that was passed in 2008 and postponed its implementation to September 2009 and then March 2010, the new law will certainly change the way drivers in Costa Rica take to the road.
For his part, Marín is confident that people are ready to assume the consequences of the new rules of the road.
