AARTO : road users rights and obligations

Abstract

Paper presented at the 26th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 9 - 12 July 2007 "The challenges of implementing policy?", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT:The Administrative of Road Traffic Offences Act, No. 46 of 1998, (AARTO), which was approved by Parliament in 1998, will enter into force on 1 September 2007 in the magisterial district of Tshwane on a pilot basis for a period of 7 months. On 1 April 2008 the system will be rolled-out on a national basis. The objectives of AARTO are, amongst others : to encourage the payment of penalties imposed for infringements; to establish a procedure for the effective and expeditious adjudication of infringements; with the purpose to encourage compliance with the national and provincial laws and to alleviate the burden on the courts of trying offenders for infringements. AARTO further aims to penalise drivers and operators who are guilty of infringements or offences through the imposition of demerit points leading to the suspension and cancellation of driving licences, professional driving permits or operator cards. AARTO further imposes certain rights and obligations on drivers. These include : payment of fines within 32 days, which will result in a substantial discount; submit an application to make payments in installments; submit a representation for consideration; provision of the name, ID number and contact detail of the driver of the vehicle if the owners was not the driver at the time of the offence; or elect to follow the court procedure. Upon payment of a fine, demerit points applicable to the particular offence, would be allocated and recorded against the name of the Infringer. Should the alleged offender fail to carry out any of the available options within a period of 32 days, certain follow-up procedures would follow and more stringent measures put in place. If the case is not successfully resolved after a period of 64 days, more drastic steps would be taken, which could result in the attachment of property to pay the original penalty and defray costs. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the system will work and impact on road users; provide some of the standardised fines and demerit points for some critical offences; as well as to briefly provide certain rights and obligations in this regard.