The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on Thursday that the authority will strengthen deterrence against irresponsible driving, through enhancing criminal penalties and raising composition sums for road traffic offences. Such fines were last reviewed in 2000.
In a news release, MHA stated that "It is important to nip unsafe driving in the bud before serious accidents happen and people are killed or hurt."
"For road traffic offences that do not involve egregious driving behaviour and do not result in harm caused to others, the offence may be compounded, in lieu of prosecution," the ministry added.
As per the data, showed by MHA, from 2014 to 2018 the number of fatal accidents and the number of injury accidents were respectively 22.0% and 3.6% lower than the previous five years.
But the authority stated that irresponsible driving is still a concern, as such incidents are still very frequent. MHA said in the news release that between 2015 and 2018 summonses issued by TP rose by a fifth, from 152,700 to 181,000.
So, now as per the revised rules, for committing an offence like taking an illegal U-turn, the drivers of light vehicles could face a fine of S$100, while a heavyweight vehicle driver will be liable to face a fine of S$150.
If a driver fails to wear a seat belt, previously he used to face a fine of S$120 and S$150 depending on the vehicle type. But, as per the revised penalties, for that failure to wear a seat belt while driving a driver will face a fine of S$150 for light vehicles and S$200 for heavy vehicles.
Check the list of revised penalties here:
The revised rules also include 'Pedestrian and Cyclist Offences.' MHA also decided to increase the penalties for the pedestrian and cyclist offences, as the composition sum sums have also not been increased for more than 20 years.
Here are the revised penalties:
However, Singapore Traffic Police ("TP") and the Land Transport Authority ("LTA") have been working to improve road safety through a multi-pronged approach and these are:
- Tighten Enforcement
- Making the Locations of Cameras Known
- Ramp Up Public Engagement and Education
- Build Road Safety Infrastructure
