Thirty-eight people died on Jamaica's roads in August 2026. The demerit point system meant to penalise the drivers who cause crashes like these was due to start on 1 October 2026. It has been pushed back indefinitely, pending what the government calls a full revision.
Camera enforcement does not have to wait for that revision. Guyana's Safe Road Intelligent System already issues speeding tickets automatically from radar-linked cameras, and the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) could adapt the model for Mandela Highway, Highway 2000 and Jamaica's other high-crash corridors.
Jamaica recorded 374 road deaths in 2025, up from 365 the year before, against the National Road Safety Council's target of fewer than 300 a year under Vision 2030. By 31 August 2026 the count stood at 194 fatal crashes and 225 deaths, 13 percent fewer than at the same point in 2025. That is progress, with four months of the year still to run.
How the October start date slipped
The demerit point system sits in the Road Traffic Act, 2018 and the Road Traffic Regulations, 2022. Offences such as speeding, running red lights and not wearing a seatbelt carry points against a licence, and enough points within a set period lead to escalating penalties up to suspension. Jamaica Information Service reporting confirmed the 1 October 2026 start, and drivers spent June and July being urged to settle outstanding tickets.
In late August, the Public Transport Operators Steering Committee and other transport groups agreed to hold the date until the framework is fully revised and a public education campaign has run. Egerton Newman, president of the Transport Operators Development and Sustainable Services (TODSS), told the Gleaner the delay allows more consultation and better public education. TODSS had spent July calling for an urgent review of the Road Traffic Act and urging operators to contest tickets in court, so for its members the delay was a win.
Dr Lucien Jones, vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council, called the delay disheartening and dangerous. He said the ITA, which runs the system, needs more support staff, and warned that when a country delays part of its road safety system it has to fill the gap some other way. No one has yet said how.
Crashes come from driver behaviour, which smart traffic lights do not change
Mark Shields, former deputy commissioner of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and managing director of Shields Crime and Security Ltd, has made this case in his Gleaner column all year. In March, under the headline "Enforcement, not smart traffic lights will save lives," he wrote that a smart traffic light system, whatever it does for congestion, will not stop red-light running, speeding, dangerous overtaking, lane indiscipline, reckless motorcycle riding or minibus lawlessness.
By May, in a follow-up column headlined "Stop reinventing the wheel, start issuing tickets," he was arguing that Jamaica has studied electronic traffic enforcement for years without deploying it at scale. Responsibility moved from the Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of National Security some years ago, and the idea has stayed in studies and pilot discussions since. Gleaner reporting from May 2024 described authorities working towards a framework for prosecuting offences caught on camera, so the legal work has started.
Guyana and Greece show automated enforcement at two scales
Guyana switched on its Safe Road Intelligent System on 7 April 2025, a joint project of the Guyana Police Force and the National Data Management Authority. Radar-linked speed cameras with a detection range of roughly 500 to 600 feet feed a cloud platform that generates tickets without an officer at the roadside. Drivers whose contact details are registered with the Guyana Revenue Authority receive the notice by SMS or email.
Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn championed the enabling legislation, and Traffic Chief Senior Superintendent Mahendra Singh oversaw the rollout. By November 2025, seven months after launch, the system had issued roughly 42,000 tickets, far more than officers at the roadside could have written in that time.
Greece shows the national version. Eight AI-enabled cameras built by the Australian firm Acusensus and run by the Ministry of Digital Governance recorded nearly 29,000 violations (speeding, phone use, seatbelt and helmet offences) in a few weeks of testing before fines began on 26 January 2026. The full national network has a reported cost of about 93.8 million euros.
| Guyana | Greece | |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | 7 April 2025 | Fines from 26 January 2026 |
| Detects | Speeding | Speeding, phone use, seatbelts, helmets |
| Early volume | About 42,000 tickets in seven months | Nearly 29,000 violations from eight cameras in weeks of testing |
| Cost | Not published; a small cluster of cloud-linked cameras | About 93.8 million euros for the national network |
What it would look like on Mandela Highway
On Mandela Highway, the Six Miles roundabout, Spanish Town Road and the Highway 2000 toll sections, radar and number-plate recognition cameras would flag speeding, red-light running and lane offences. The system would match the plate to the registered owner in the ITA's database and issue the ticket. The camera watches every vehicle, every hour, which no patrol can.
This also answers Dr Jones's staffing point. Automated detection takes over the part of enforcement that depends on an officer being in the right place, and frees ITA and police staff for processing, appeals and the offences a camera cannot see.
Four conditions before the cameras go up
Finish the legal groundwork. Camera-only evidence, with no officer present, has to be confirmed as enough for prosecution and demerit points. That needs a regulation under the Road Traffic Act or a targeted amendment, which is a smaller job than the full demerit revision and could move ahead of it. The law also has to say who is liable when the registered owner was not driving.
Write data safeguards into the programme. The Data Protection Act, 2020 created the Office of the Information Commissioner, but Information Commissioner Celia Barclay has said her office will not be positioned for full enforcement until 2028 because of staffing and infrastructure limits. The ITA and the JCF therefore need their own rules from day one: fixed retention periods, use limited to traffic offences, and no facial recognition beyond plate matching.
Start with corridors. A pilot in two or three high-crash areas, such as the western parishes the Council has flagged for rising deaths or the busiest Kingston and St Andrew routes, tests detection accuracy, processing time and public reaction before any Greek-scale spending.
Connect the cameras to the demerit system. Build the pilot so that camera-detected offences feed into whatever revised demerit framework launches. Then Jamaica builds one system in two stages.
The weak spot in this proposal is processing. Guyana's 42,000 tickets are only useful if they are paid or prosecuted, and Jamaica already has a backlog of unpaid tickets and outstanding warrants. A camera pilot that produces tickets faster than the courts and the ITA can clear them would add to that backlog. The pilot has to measure collection rates as well as detections.
The Core Argument
The demerit delay is a legislative and administrative problem. The death toll is an enforcement problem. Cameras address the second on their own timetable while the first is sorted out, and Guyana, about 2,400 kilometres away, already runs them.
What Jamaica's transport and security officials should do next
- Ministry of National Security and the Attorney General's Chambers: draft the regulation that makes camera evidence admissible for traffic prosecutions and sets owner liability, separately from the wider demerit revision. Aim to table it within six months.
- Island Traffic Authority: ask Guyana's National Data Management Authority and Traffic Chief Mahendra Singh for a technical briefing on their system, costs and error rates. One visit costs little and replaces months of desk study.
- National Road Safety Council: publish the three corridors with the most fatal crashes over the past three years, so the pilot sites are chosen on data and are public before procurement.
- ITA and the JCF: publish a one-page data policy for the pilot covering retention period, permitted uses, who can access images and how drivers can see the evidence against them.
- Ministry of Finance: set up the pilot so a fixed share of fine revenue pays for processing staff and court capacity, with collection rates reported quarterly.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will Jamaica's demerit point system start now?
No new date has been announced. The 1 October 2026 start was put on hold pending a full revision of the framework and a public education campaign. Official announcements come through the Ministry of Transport, the Island Traffic Authority and the Jamaica Information Service, so check those before relying on news reports or social media.
What should drivers do while the system is delayed?
Settle any outstanding tickets now, since the delay affects demerit points and does not cancel existing fines or warrants. Traffic tickets can be paid at Tax Administration Jamaica offices. Keep your licence, registration and insurance details up to date with the ITA, because any future camera system will send notices to the registered owner's address.
Who pays a camera ticket if someone else was driving the car?
That depends on how the law is written, which is why Jamaica needs a specific regulation before cameras issue tickets. Many countries make the registered owner liable unless the owner names the driver within a set period. Fleet owners, taxi operators and parents who lend cars should watch this detail when the draft regulation is published, because it decides who carries the points.
How can a driver challenge a camera-detected offence?
In well-run systems the driver can view the image or video, the recorded speed and the location, and can ask for proof that the speed device was calibrated and certified at the time. Jamaica's regulation should give those rights explicitly, with a set period to request the evidence. Ask for them if you receive a camera ticket and anything in the record looks wrong.
What should a camera programme publish to keep public trust?
Camera locations and the offences each camera detects, independent accuracy audits, the data retention period and how fine revenue is spent. Programmes abroad that hid locations or looked designed to raise revenue have faced public backlash. Clear roadside signs showing that cameras are in use also help, because the aim is fewer offences, not more fines.