Belize Aims to Revamp Road Safety Laws to Improve Public Transport, Reduce Fatalities

The Ministry of Transportation wants to revamp the country’s road safety legislation to enhance public transport services, and reduce fatal traffic incidents. Newly appointed Minister of Transportation, Dr. Louis Zabaneh, has hit the ground running, spearheading efforts to tighten regulations across the transportation sector. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to modernize traffic laws and ensure a more efficient transport sector for all citizens. According to the Dr. Zabaneh, the planned updates will address critical areas such as speeding, impaired driving, and public transportation standards. 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport: “We have you could say two broad areas. One has to do with the regulations, the laws and the enforcement. Those things have an impact whether or not we have relevant laws that are on the books. So a revision will need to take place and then examining the degree of failure that we’ve had with enforcement and looking at the ways that we will need to work to be able to enforce our regulations, our rules, including the rules of the road, including things like vehicle inspection, licensing of vehicles also the process in which we issue out drivers permits, driers licenses, all of that is gonna be under review because we know that what we have is not serving us and needs to get urgent attention. So that’s a very very critical area for us.”

Dr. Zabaneh added that he hopes to hold consultations with stakeholders in the near future.