The Land Transport Authority is working closely with the Ministry of Transport to introduce the demerit point system for local drivers.
LTA Acting CEO Irimaia Rokosawa said the new system would root out bad behaviour on national roads.
“Each individual driver is also the judge of his own destiny meaning as he or she infringes they know that they will eventually lose their licence,” he said.
“At the moment, LTA does the analysis.
“When a report is lodged, we identify who the bad driver is, call them in and do a ‘show cause’ then LTA be the judge again.
“So it is quite a long process.”
He said the system would be adopted from similar programs carried out overseas.
“Overseas each driving infringement has a different point being deducted.
“For example, dangerous driving would be like five points and if you commit these offences during public holidays, the points will be doubled.
“If you keep infringing then you will keep losing points. “So we want to introduce that system in Fiji.”
He said for the system to be introduced, certain legislations would have to be reviewed and changed.
“It is something that I totally agree with and it works quite well overseas but under Fiji’s regulation which states that a demerit point can only be issued by the Magistrate Court.
“So there is a need to revise that law. We are working with our line ministry at the moment on it. Any changes to the law will require us to work with our line ministry and also the Solicitor General’s office.”
