Acting Chief Executive Officer of Land Transport Authority Irimaia Rokosawa says they have considered the issue of methamphetamine being taken by some PSV drivers and are working within their stakeholder forums to look at their legislation for the introduction of mandatory and random drug tests.
He highlighted this on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan when questioned on the amount of public service vehicles involved in horrific accidents and a call for mandatory drug tests on drivers.
Rokosawa says they also want to introduce these tests in the preliminary phase when drivers are applying for their PSV license, which is nothing new as it has been done in other countries as well.
The Acting CEO further says some of these accidents are very unusual and happen in places where it could have been easily avoided, therefore they are having discussions with the Fiji Police Force on ways to introduce these into the laws and enforcement exercise.
He says they will soon do drug tests on drivers who already hold licenses and are working closely with the ministry.
Rokosawa also says that there are around 147,000 vehicles registered in Fiji and about 350,000 license holders.
The Acting CEO says in terms of their enforcement they have 95 officers and 1 enforcement officer looking after 1,500 vehicles.
He says 26 officers are in their overloading team, 23 are in the e-ticketing and 46 are in their general enforcement.
Rokosawa says there are about 9,837 truck and traders and 1 officer enforces around 378 truck and traders while for e-ticketing there are about 1,188 buses and 1 officer enforces about 52 buses.
He says in terms of their legislation they don't have the powers to arrest and LTA only feels safe when they work closely with the police because, sometimes their officers get assaulted while carrying out their duties on the ground, especially during the festive season as there will be a lot of merry making and alcohol consumption.
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