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Sharon Inglefield, President of the road safety NGO Arrive Alive, delivered a blunt, pragmatic message: the new penalties are not a “tax” but a necessary investment in changing a dangerous driving culture and, ultimately, building a safer nation.
In a wide-ranging interview, Inglefield addressed frustrated drivers head-on, framing the fines as a critical component of a global-standard “road safety management system.”
“None of us want to pay fines. All of us work very hard for our income,” Inglefield acknowledged. “So, our advice is: don’t break the law and you won’t incur a fine. This is not a tax; this is a fine for breaking the law. The laws are there to protect us all.”
She drew direct parallels to the countries Trinidad and Tobago aspires to emulate. “In first world countries, which we admire, inspections for private cars are every year. And the fines are hefty,” she stated, urging citizens to redirect their financial planning. “Let’s budget for enjoying our Carnival, our Christmas, our Divali and let us not break the law to incur the fines.”
For Inglefield, the steep fines have a single, urgent purpose: to alter dangerous behaviour on roads that have claimed too many lives.
“We want to try and force a behavioural change because we still have too many people losing their lives, too many serious injuries,” she said, citing the United Nations Global Status Report on Road Safety, which underscores enforcement as key to changing driver conduct.
She emphasised that fines must be part of a broader system. “We do believe in education and training. But if you break the law, you pay the fine. If you break the law, there’s a consequence. We cannot continue to travel on our nation’s roads with impunity.”
Addressing a major public grievance—poor road conditions—Inglefield articulated a clear vision for how fine revenue should be used.
“We’re hoping that these fines go back into our Treasury, to make our pavements, our sidewalks more user-friendly, and mainly to our roads, so potholes are repaired,” she said. This reinvestment, she argued, creates a virtuous cycle: “It’s very important that we have the revenue to maintain our roads, to maintain our highways, and to get from A to B safely.”
While cautious, Inglefield pointed to early, positive indicators. “Certainly, we have had a decrease in the number of tragic accidents, fatalities on our roads from last year to this year,” she noted, observing less traffic as people comply with inspections and licensing.
However, she issued a stark warning about enforcement capabilities, particularly with Carnival approaching. “We are not satisfied that we have enough breathalysers and speed guns in the hands of the highway division. Speed is the number one killer.”
She called for an urgent upgrade to driver training, including mandatory “hazard perception” testing, to complement the punitive measures.
“We live here, we have children, we have grandchildren. We want to be proud, we want to be there to live another day,” Inglefield implored. “Let us all as drivers take heed. We want to be less selfish, we want to be selfless, and we want to make sure that we come home safely to our family every day. We don’t want to see our family grieving for something that’s preventable.”
