My First Traffic Violation in Jamaica

My First Traffic Violation in Jamaica

I’m STILL laughing about this one!  I got pulled over for my first time yesterday in Jamaica – for not wearing a seat belt.  First of all this is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard because I’ve never seen anyone wear a seat belt here, second the only other time police have paid attention to me is when they’re trying to hit on me.

So we were driving through Port Antonio minding our own business, we passed some police on the side of the road – no big deal.  A few minutes later I notice a couple of them on motorbikes following us and my friend and I joked about them stopping us for no seat belts.  Nothing happened and they continued to follow, then at that point they rode up on our side and told us to pull over.

I have to admit the first thing that crossed my mind is extortion and what they were going to try to get out of me, because I’ve heard stories about such things. The next thing I thought of was my blog and how I could get pictures of this event without being caught LOL! Obviously I got them, even if they’re a little crappy but I had to take them without being noticed. These police were in full riot gear too, members of the “jump out” squad we were told, those are the ones who do raids.

So it took two motorbikes and three officers to charge us with driving without seat belts. We were laughing so hard that I was sure the next thing they’d want to test me for is to see if I was drunk! I was so entertained at being pulled over that I thanked the officer for issuing the ticket, then I asked him if anyone’s ever thanked him for a ticket before. He proceeded to explain to me that my ticket is $500 jmd (which almost made me laugh harder), and that if I wish to contest it I could appear in court on June 7. I’m totally regretting that I won’t be able to appear in court because YOU KNOW I would, but it would cost me more in gas to drive back to Port Antonio than the ticket is worth. I would definitely come to fight a $6 USD ticket just for fun.

After they left us alone and we put on our seat belts we actually read our tickets. Both myself and my friend received the same ticket….only HERS said “driving without a seat belt” and she was the passenger. So in the next couple days we will go to the place where tickets are paid and fork over the cash to clear it up.