Esta ley enmienda la Ley de Vehículos y Tránsito de Puerto Rico para establecer un servicio cibernético que permita a los ciudadanos pagar multas de tránsito en línea, rastrear sus infracciones e identificar errores en las citaciones. También establece cómo se realizarán los pagos atrasados de multas de tránsito.
(H. B. 2403) (Conference) (No. 10) (Approved January 8, 2004)
To amend subsection
(g) and to add subsection
(q) to Section 24.05 of Act No. 22 of January 7, 2000, as amended, known as the "Vehicles and Traffic Act of Puerto Rico," for the purpose of incorporating a cyber service through which citizens may pay for traffic violations and other violations related to the driving of motor vehicles under said Act, and through which the citizens may track the violations they are charged with and identify instances in which the citations for traffic violations issued are in a defective or erroneous way; and to establish how payments in arrears shall be made for traffic violations.
Technological advances are instruments that considerably facilitate the most routine acts of human beings, be it through quicker access to information or through the efficient performance of the most varied activities of social interaction. From the evident technological progress before us, the Internet web emerges with a span that reaches levels of communication never before imagined. Through a simple operation, the Internet provides access to voluminous and valuable information sources.
We have the State as a natural beneficiary of such advances, that through this cyber web has the opportunity to reach more of its citizens, providing them with direct services of many kinds, in the comfort of their homes. Certainly, the Internet represents an inexhaustible source of possibilities for democratizing the political system even more, making the government more
responsive to the citizen, through access to government documents by using an instrument that is easy to operate and of a moderate cost.
A governmental area where the Internet can be applied ideally is the payment of fines for traffic violations, a procedure that usually burdens citizens with innumerable and slow procedures that consume large amount of time and effort. The modern world's time limitations require the government to use more responsive ways by which citizens may identify their traffic violations debts and pay them without resorting to stagnant bureaucratic procedures, which drain the people's trust in public institutions.
It is therefore imperative to establish through this Act a cyber service that renders the administrative procedure determined in Section 24.05 of the Vehicles and Traffic Act more responsive with regard to traffic violations. In this way the citizens, from their homes, may identify the fines issued to their names. Further, they shall be able to make the corresponding payments without the need to spend a substantial part of their time in such endeavors. In this way, the people shall have a genuine incentive to know with certainty their traffic debts and pay the same shortly after the fines for such violations have been issued.
Section 1.- Subsection
(g) is hereby amended and subsection
(q) is hereby added to Section 24.05 of Act No. 22 of January 7, 2000, as amended, known as the "Vehicles and Traffic Act of Puerto Rico," to read as follows: "Section 24.05. Administrative Procedure The following rules shall be apply to administrative traffic violations:
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e) (f)
(g) It shall be the duty of the offender to pay the ticket within thirty (30) days after the date it is issued. If not paid within that term, it shall carry a surcharge of five (5) dollars for each month or fraction of a month elapsed from the date of issue, until eighteen (18) months from its date of issue have elapsed, which can be paid in any collection agency before the due date for the vehicle's permit. If the infraction is not paid prior to said date, it may be included in the permit of the vehicle.
(h) (i)
(j) (k)
(l) (m)
(n) (o)
(p) (q) Without prejudice to what is provided in the previous paragraphs, any citizen may pay administrative fines for the traffic violations and administrative violations contemplated in the paragraphs previous to this Section through a cyber service established for this purpose by the Department of Transportation and Public Works. The cyber service referred
to shall contain data on all traffic or administrative violations in such a way that drivers may identify their debts originating from such violations and may ascertain the correctness and truthfulness of the charges made.
In compliance with the provisions of the previous paragraph, said cyber service shall function as a registry that shall contain all the information required by this Section, including information concerning the amount of the penalty corresponding to municipalities, for an appropriate documentation of all traffic or administrative violations, as established in the administrative procedure regulated by this Section.
The access to the cyber service created herein requires entering the driver's license corresponding to the user wanting access to the same, as well as entering the number assigned by the Department to each driver, which shall be a second access code to the service, to guarantee its confidentiality."
Section 2.- The provisions of the present Act shall be implemented in a staggered manner, with the data of the traffic violations being entered into the cyber page no later than July 1, 2004.
Section 3.- The Secretary of Transportation and Public Works shall be the officer responsible for directing the entry and transfer of the data in the registry to the cyber page created according to this Act. The Secretary may delegate such responsibility only to an officer of the Department under his/her direction, who must inform the Secretary periodically about his/her work.
In turn, when the Department does not have sufficient personnel, the Secretary may contract the services of a private entity for purposes of technical advice as well as for the required expertise to configure and to
maintain the cyber page that shall provide the service created through this Act. It is understood that the management of the cyber service shall be provided by the Department of Transportation and Public Works and that the intervention of private entities shall be limited to advising the Department officers about the implementation of the provisions of this Act.
Section 4.- This Act shall take effect nine (9) months after its approval.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 10 (H.B. 2403) of the $6^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend subsection
(g) and to add subsection
(q) to Section 24.05 of Act No. 22 of January 7, 2000, as amended, known as the "Vehicles and Traffic Act of Puerto Rico," for the purpose of incorporating a cyber service through which citizens may pay for traffic violations and other violations related to the driving of motor vehicles under said Act, and through which the citizens may track the violations they are charged with and identify instances in which the citations for traffic violations issued are in a defective or erroneous way; and to establish how payments in arrears shall be made for traffic violations, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $4^{ ext {th }}$ of April of 2005.
Luis E. Fusté-Lacourt Director