Traffic Fines
Traffic Fines Overview – What you need to know
Traffic fines in South Africa are in the process of been administrated by the AARTO agency. The main purpose the police speed trap motorists are to control and enforce the speed limit to speedsters on the road. The current system which is in effect in South Africa follows AARTO (the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) was originally setup in 1998. The aim of AARTO is to get the whole countries provincial and municipal traffic departments on the same system, working together with the eNATIS traffic department’s database. Traffic fines will all be administered by AARTO by the 1 April 2011, it has been published that demerit point system will also come into full effect. Drivers will be penalised with demerit points for various traffic offences. If motorists rack up more than 12 points in a 12 month period, they risk having their driver’s license suspended for a predetermined period.
For more informtion about your rights and the law, please visit our website www.trafficfinelaw.co.za and get a free information e-book.
Traffic Fines and AARTO Enforcement
The South African police have a tough time enforcing the law on the national roads. Often motorist’s receive fines weeks later and can’t even remember where or why they caught. The public are penalised with heavy fines costing thousands of Rands to enforce law and respect of the speed limit regulations. Traffic fines and road offenses in South Africa must be taken serious as many innocent people die on our roads due to speeding and other illegal road acts. After a traffic Offence has been recorded with a speed measuring equipment (SME) the traffic officer has the duty to hand over the photographic evidence in digital format to the respective Traffic department for processing. JMPD and other local municipalities use various independent and privately owned agencies Payfine.co.za and Viewfine.co.za (for areas outside of Gauteng).
These agencies are then tasked to process the fines in accordance to the TSCP which is the guided lines set out by the National Director of Prosecution. The images processed and notice of infringement letters (AARTO 08 letters) are sent out via registered post to the motorists. The address details and driver details are sources from the National eNatis database. It is required by law that the issuing traffic fine department or agency must submit and post the traffic fine notice within 32 days from the date of offence. This means that the date post must not exceed 32 calendar days from date of offence. The police cannot be held responsible for any delays for late post due to the slow processing service of the South African postal service. It is important to collect your post regularly and to deal with your traffic fines as soon as possible.
The infringement letter is sent to the owner of the vehicle by default, and the owner or driver has thirty two days in which to either pay the traffic fine, elect a driver (if someone else was driving the vehicle) or to dispute the fine due to irregularities or errors found on the traffic fine. The system allows a discount of 50% on the penalties if the fine is paid in full within this period. This is obviously an incentive to collect outstanding money as quick as possible. The driver or vehicle owner ticketed will have sixty four (64) days to provide AARTO representation if any fines are in dispute. The motorist will need to either download or fill out the AARTO 08 form online on the AARTO website. If someone else was driving the vehicle, you can elect to have the fine reissued to the offending driver.
For more informtion about your rights and the law, please visit our website www.trafficfinelaw.co.za and get a free information e-book.
Summons served for outstanding Traffic Fines
The prosecuting authority will submit and serve you with a summons for you to appear in court, should you not pay the fine, nor contest the fine, nor respond to their notices or courtesy letters. You will need to plead your case in court and explain and defend yourself in a court of law. The prosecutor will need to submit all the evidence in the form of photographic and testaments from the traffic officers involved with the traffic office recording. Should you ignore the summons instructions to appear in court on a specific date, the prosecutor will process a warrant order for your arrest for being in contempt of court, not for not paying the traffic offence? If you are stopped in a traffic roadblock, you will be arrested and need to go to court as per the warrant issued.
I recieved a Traffic Fine, what must I do now?
Before doing anything with your notice of infringement letter, you should always assess the fine. Inspect the the fine for any errors and irregularities. 
Make sure the fine is correctly issued in time, has the correct details, and the correct photo image on the letter. Check the speed zones, direction of road and details of the offence. Many of the tickets can be paid online on the payfine or viewfine websites. You can pay for your fines via credit card or direct payments. If you intend to contest the ticket, remember you only have 32 days to send a aarto form by registered mail. The agency will process and react to your application fines as soon as possible and reply in writing or e-mail.
Don’t be afraid to ask question on the validity of traffic fines. It is your legal right to a questions and to have your fines cancelled if they are not in order.
For more informtion about your rights and the law, please visit our website www.trafficfinelaw.co.za and get a free information e-book.
Get instant access to the Traffic Fine Assessment Kit here, It will help you find the errors and identifly invalid and illegal traffic fines.
Traffic Fine Assessment Kit
For legal information about Traffic Fines and AARTO ‘Click here for Information on the Traffic Fine Assessment Kit’
For more information on Traffic fines and the AARTO system, visit the following websites below.