Tomorrow is 'T' day - Lewis insists PPV tints be removed

Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer

Head of the Police Traffic Division, Senior Super-intendent Radcliffe Lewis, insists that tomorrow, there will be an islandwide crackdown on tinted public passenger vehicles (PPV).

Lewis said the police will collaborate with the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) and PPV operators found in breach will be sanctioned.

"All tints must be removed. Any vehicle found with tints, their licence plates will be removed. That is additional money being taken from the operators and I don't want that. I am advising them that we will be out in full force Monday morning with examiners and if any vehicles are found with tints, their licence plates will be taken off and their vehicles seized and impounded," he said.

Concerns about potential sun damage to the vehicle's upholstering and audio equipment, as well as passengers getting hot were put to Lewis. "They will have to find other ways and they will have to seek it out. There are those kinds of tints, the clearer ones, that do the same kind of protection that the darker ones do," Lewis explained.

He acknowledged that in the past, regulations about PPV tinting had been relaxed, which he did not support.

Party buses

Lewis insists that unscrupulous behaviour is taking place on board some heavily tinted buses. He said there are two 'party buses'. The superintendent stated that these party buses usually drive around in the evening with students gyrating to blaring music and drinking liquor.

"They are hard to detect. When they [students] are on these buses gyrating, doing lapdance and drinking beers, they pay a massive fee of up to $500. The buses operate from downtown to Half-Way Tree. When it reaches Half-Way Tree, it turns around again and goes straight downtown. It travels along Ocean Boulevard and sometimes it stops for sightseeing," Lewis said.

"The bus then goes uptown. During this time, you are of the opinion that this bus is transporting passengers, but it is a special kind of passenger. As soon as they are stopped by the police they shape up themselves to look like ordinary passengers, then the bus is let go and they start with their antics again," Lewis continued.

Last Monday, one such bus was stopped and checked. Fifty-one students (41 females and 10 males) from Corporate Area high schools were found aboard, with three men the superintendent referred to as 'back-up men'.

It is difficult for the police to detect if other party buses exist and take the appropriate action.