I read with interest the news in today's The Star Online about the government's offer to traffic offenders who have outstanding summons. A 50% discount is offered to those who pay up within the first half of this month. The offer then drops to 30% if the fines are paid in the second half of December. After that, there's no more mercy.
On the way home from work, BFM radio station invited telephone calls from listeners who wish to air their views on this matter. A number of those who phoned-in, disagreed with the discount offer primarily because they believe it will make traffic offenders more complacent. Some even suggested that the fines should be increased, otherwise we would never see a reduction in our accident statistics.
We can argue about this issue both ways but personally for me at the present moment, I am all for the discount offer... and I am sure all of you can guess why. I have two outstanding summonses to my name, amounting to RM450. Half of that amount is not an insignificant value by any means of measurement. While I appreciate the reduction, it does not mean that I condone traffic offenders. I seriously believe the reckless drivers should be penalised heavily and this discount offer apparently does not apply to those in that category.
In my case, both my summonses apply to speeding but my gripe is that they occured so long ago and I never received any written notice from the police. The first offence was recorded as happening in 2005 while the second one presumably took place in 2007. I never had any trouble renewing my road tax from 2005 until this year... and that's a 5-year period. I only knew I had unsettled summonses after registering with the MyEG portal two months ago.
The police are probably right about those occassions they caught me speeding and probably I deserve to be fined. But what I am not quite satisfied about is the time and method they took to issue the summons. Actually, if I had not registered at MyEG, I wouldn't have known about it. It shows a lack of urgency on their part for not following up on an offence that was committed five years ago. Alternatively, we can argue that speeding offences are not a priority on the police list and therefore not serious.
Anyway, everything is fine now... I'll just settle half of my fine and then I'll be fine.
10 comments:
Oldstock,
I agree with you on the lackadaisical
attitude of the police on sending the summons immediately after you were caught doing the offense as that would immediately make you aware of the offense committed. Otherwise you would be just continue committing them.
My gripe with such actions is that where the caught us for speeding are in areas where they are perfectly safe to drive at 80 kph in an area designated as 70 kph zone when there are no other traffic around. The purpose of the exercise seems to be not for safety but just to make you cough up a fine.
The reduction on the fine is most welcome when you are caught for such an offense.
Saya pun seriklah saman-menyaman nih..nasib baik Myvi takle bawa laju sgt..
Not one of us can throw a stone at you, I feel, because who among us have not 'sinned' in this very same way?
But I agree that this is wayyy to long ago for you to remember, and so I feel there should be a statue of limitations, as such, on when the police can issue these summonses.
How can you be expected to recall that far back? Is it really you deserving of that fine, or was it someone else? You have no way of verifying this, and as such, you should be given the benefit of the doubt, and the fine dismissed.
In terms of the law, I could be totally off-base, but in terms of justice, I do believe I have a point ;)
Salam Pak Zawi,
You echoed my sentiments exactly. I believe the police should make better effort in following-up with the compound notices that they issue and not simply let MyEG do the work. We must remember that there are still many people in our country who are not connected to the internet.
And yes, sometimes the police purposely set up traps at areas where they easily catch offenders, eg. stretches of straight road with low speed limits, double centreline at clear zones etc.
Hliza, Myvi pun boleh bawak laju pe... terpulang pada drivernya kan.. :-)
Pat,
Yes, I believe that there should be a statute of limitations too... because we can't expect everybody to remember things that happened those years ago. But knowing our police department, I doubt they are going to improve soon in this area.
I'll tell you of a ersonal experience. There was this accident I was involved in 1992 or thereabouts. My fault and so I paid the fine, no questions asked. About five years later, I received a letter from the traffic police saying that my case was not closed. Luckily I still kept the receipt. I went to the police station, met with an old seargeant who was handling my case file and showed him the receipt for the fine that I paid. He had a look at it then grumbled something about the former officer who did not record the payment and made a note in the file to close the case. Fortunately, he was polite enough to apologise to me for the slack work his fellow officers had done.
The lesson I've learnt here is that to keep all receipts of payment I made for all my traffic offences, no matter how old they may be.
I too have to check whether there is any to my name. Especially now being the one and only driver.
Hliza,
Selalu yg dok potong I atas jalan tu MyVi la. I called them 'the road terror'.
As, you kan baru balik Malaysia... dah ada saman speeding ke, hehe..
salamz.. it has been ages tak masuk ur blog uncle.... Been super busy lately... how r u anyway?
summons? ahahahhaah for the time being I don't have any... but who knows soon right?
I think Malaysian mentality will remain the same regarding the discounts ni. they can just ignored it until the GOV mentioned they will get discount when they pay. In other words.. lets do it and don't worry soon I will pay half price.
Don't you think the harsh action should be implemented now? :D
GOV give too many opportunities though. But anyway This time when they reduce from 50 to 30 then no discount = i think good. at least it shows some choice for people to choose... and to ponder :D
-my humble thoughts-
till then... take care
Salam Zafi,
Thanks for dropping by. Good to know that you are busy... it means that you are not being troubled by the freezing weather over there.
I haven't been blogging much also. Which means not very much blog-hopping too... so I have been missing posts from your blogs and other friends too. A lot of catching up to do.
You stay warm, ok..
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