Poverty-Inflicting Traffic Fines In Effect Monday
February 24th, 2010 | by admin |Starting Monday, with the new Traffic Law in effect, Costa Rica will be home to one of the world’s highest fines for talking on a cellphone while driving: ¢286.065 (approx US $520).
Still, that’s not the highest fine available — not using proper child seats and boosters, driving without a license or with an expired license will set you back a lofty ¢381.420 (approx US $693), higher than an average Costa Rican monthly wage.
Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly has been working to reduce these prohibitive fines for the past 6 months, but haven’t been able to amend the Traffic Law in time. This means these high fines will be in effect for at least 15 days before being reduced, and possibly for another month. Owing to the rampant corruption of Traffic Police forces, the bribe amounts will increase accordingly, so expect many motivated traffic cops patrolling the streets looking for cellphone users.
Some of the new fines are below. Some of them are interesting given that they are part of normal Costa Rican driving behavior (such as those involving pedestrians and the car’s horn).
¢381.420 ($693): driving with blood alcohol content between 0.5 and 0.75 grams per liter (over 0.75 is punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison among many other punishments), driving over 120 km/h, not using child seats and boosters, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, driving with no license or expired license.
¢286.065 ($520): driving over 25km/h in school and hospital zones, talking on the cellphone, speeding, making U-turns, not having yearly mandatory insurance, not wearing seatbelts, not yielding to pedestrians at intersections.
¢190.710 ($346): littering on public roads, not having up to date Riteve car inspection, driving without reflectors (where applicable), driving on the beach.
¢152.568 ($277): driving without a windshield, unnecessary use of horn, parking where prohibited.
(Small note for Jeep users: driving with your windshield folded down should be OK because you are technically not “driving without a windshield” — it just happens to be folded. Don’t try doing that on freeways or without sunglasses though.)
