Dear Editor,
On December 1st the government plans to reinstate certain articles in the traffic ordinance. This law at the time of its inception was created with the interest of safety and the free flow of traffic in mind, but like many laws in St. Maarten, it is in much need of modernizing. Some of the concerns lawmakers had then, would not be relevant today.
In a September 26th press release, the Ministry of Justice stated that heavy equipment was essential in the reconstruction effort after Hurricane Irma, which is why certain articles such as article 60A were not being enforced.
Article 60A states that:
It is prohibited to drive heavy equipment on roads open to public traffic and other traffic on working days from 06:30 to 08:30 and from 12:00 to 14:00.
The article also defined what in the eyes of the law is heavy equipment; the law makes no distinction on the type of heavy equipment. This omission of distinct categories for heavy equipment is one of the law’s shortcomings. This law attempted to address the issues surrounding the free flow of traffic that were present at the time. It was created during a time when all forms of heavy equipment were woefully underpowered and posed a significant threat to the free flow of traffic, so banning the use of heavy equipment for four hours during the day would have been a logical solution.
Nowadays most trucks no longer suffer from the shortcomings of their predecessors and should be a separate category.
As for the issue of safety, Article 60A does very little. One needs only to look at the number of accidents involving trucks as opposed to other forms of transportation.
Why is this of any importance? Trucking of whatever sort is a business, whether it is a dump truck removing fill from freshly cut lots of land, a garbage truck removing solid waste from our neighborhoods, a concrete truck hauling concrete to the various reconstruction projects, or a tractor-trailer pulling containers from the port to the myriad of local businesses that depend on them. Trucking is a business and the removal of four sunlit working hours hurts business, especially now during this period of austerity.
As I work in waste management, let’s take the removal of solid waste for example, a rear loader garbage truck by nature poses a significant threat to the free flow of traffic; this is why in the past we tried to work in the night-time hours or early morning hours so between 8:00pm and 4:00am. In recent years, noise complaints and the dump closure during these hours have made working during those times impossible. Garbage trucks must now work during daylight hours, hindering the free flow of traffic. Now remove four hours of daylight. This makes the work almost impossible to complete.
60A isn’t the only article that shows that the law is long in the tooth and in need of amendment. Article 23 which was also referenced in the government’s press release takes the cake. It states that:
It is prohibited for a vehicle to drive on the public road if the height of the vehicle, including the load, exceeds 3.50 meters (11.5 feet) or if the width, including the load, exceeds 2.60 meters (8.5 feet).
I am certain that when this law was created, the dimensions of the vehicles were vastly different from what they are now, and the fact that most power, telephone, and cable lines ran above ground. As it stands, this article prohibits using all tractor-trailers carrying a standard container on a chassis, double-decker buses, certain tour buses, and even large rear-loader garbage trucks, as these are in violation of the height limits stipulated in the article.
Is it the government’s plan to indefinitely ban these vehicles for being in violation of article 23?
As the country continues to look toward the future and improve, I believe the laws have to adjust to allow for that growth. I am currently working with Party For Progress Members of Parliament in hopes to amend and bring the aforementioned laws forward to the modern day.
Luciano Nicholls
