by Rod Hughes

The traffic code reform that a citizens’ campaign had urged by hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in November and December is still not ready to see the light of day, according to legal experts Humberto Fallas and Agustin Atmella. They contend it contains serious defects that turn it into a “dangerous monstrosity” that could bend citizen rights and be outright unconstitutional.

Citizens who had lost loved ones in traffic accidents banded together in an unprecedented petition campaign to push through a reform that would stiffen sentences for drunk and reckless driving from their current “pat-on-the-wrist” fines and jail time infractors currently receive. The bill came out of committee Dec. 20 just before Christmas recess.

The last amendment that would have delayed passage, presented by the Libertarian movement, would have opened the Riteve vehicle inspection for bid again, causing extreme complications, was rejected. Even the Transport Minister fretted that it could be “a weapon against citizens” and recommended that it be returned to committee.

But congressional majority leader Jorge Mendez struck down that plan and he and committee chairman Alexander Mora assured those lawmakers uncomfortable with the bill that its defects can be cured in floor debate. Mendez snorted that if it were bounced back into committee “it could continue to be discussed indefinitely.”

One aspect of the final draft that made legal beagles uncomfortable were the fines ranging up to 600,000 colones that might be termed “confiscatory.” But the main objection seems to be the vague definitions of varied infractions such as reckless driving. Costa Rican legal experts are far more wary of allowing judges to exercise discretion than their counterparts in the United States and Europe, preferring an almost lockstep approach to sentencing.