The Police in Fiji are hoping a ban on jay-walking will prevent pedestrian related fatalities on the country's roads.
The Land Transport Authority began implementing the new law on Monday and is issuing instant fines to those caught ignoring traffic light signals.
A Police spokesperson Theresa Ralogaivau says the police are hoping the new law will reduce the number of accidents.
"When we look at the road accident statistics every year, we have about 300 road mishaps, road accidents every year. About 100 of those involve pedestrians. For road fatalities we had about 50 something road accidents last year and about nine of those were pedestrians. And so far this year we've had a similar number of road accidents involving pedestrians."
Theresa Ralogaivau says police are hoping people will change their long-ingrained attitudes and stop jay-walking.
