Samoa is soon to introduce instant fines for minor traffic offences, ending many years of prosecuting all traffic offences in court.
On the 7th of June the Land Transport Authority and the Ministry of Police and Prisons will begin enforcing the Road Traffic Payment of Fines Act 2009.
Under the Act, those who commit certain minor traffic offences will be given an instant fine ranging from about 10 US Dollars to about 80 US Dollars.
Unlicensed drivers, un-registered vehicles and speeding are the most expensive of the fines.
The legal advisor for the Land Transport Authority in Samoa, Anoanoai Pepe Lafai, says those are the offences that they want to see decrease the most.
She says over-all the focus is on making the roads safer but there are other benefits too.
"It does help to clear the court system because as you can imagine for very minor offences such as not wearing a seat-belt or unlincesed drivers it can take up to a year or even over a year just to get it heard in court so there are many advantages to the introduction of this act."
The legal advisor for the Land Transport Authority in Samoa, Anoanoai Pepe Lafai.
