by Rod Hughes

It appears Costa Rica can expect no new get-tough traffic law in time for the end-of-the-year holiday highway massacre, thanks to Libertarian Movement congressmen Mario Quiros. The law had been anticipated to raise fines for traffic infractions, punish drunk drivers and to try generally to bring some semblance of law and order to the Wild West of the country’s traffic.

The Arias Administration decided to withdraw the bill after Quiros filed an amendment to take the vehicle mechanical imspection monopoly away from the Costa Rican-Spanish consortium Riteve. His motion would open the field to public bidding within six months.

Although the motion sounds reasonable enough and Libertarians are known to be violently allegic to monopolies in principal, this raises the specter of the bad old days. Before Riteve, small mechanics shops the the country were authorized by the Ministry of Transport (MOPT) to conduct inspections. Whether corruption was present in the licensing was never proven, but it was an open secret that the mechanics could be bribed to pass vehicles that were, to put it charitably, mere smoke-spewing basket cases.

Accidents due to mechanical failure have gone down since Riteve and vehicular air pollution reduced. Moreover, some deputies pointed out that Riteve would be due damages if its contract were broken. Quiros quickly corrected himself that the inspection should be thrown open for bids when the contract runs out in 2012. (Why this could not be done by another, separate, law was not explained.)

Meanwhile, legislative committee chairman Alexander Mora of National Liberation hopes to salvage the bill, putting it on the floor in early December.