Not so fast, pickup truck drivers.
The maximum speed limit for pickup trucks, including the popular Nissan Navara, Toyota Hilux and Ford Frontier, is actually 65 kilometres per hour (km/h) and not 80 km/h.
The reason these pickup trucks are subject to a lower maximum speed limit is because they are actually classified as “goods vehicles” according to this country’s laws.
This was confirmed to the Sunday Guardian by Coordinator of the Police Road Safety Project, PC Brent Batson, yesterday.
According to Section 62 of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act Chap 48:50, the “maximum speed limit” for “goods vehicles” “outside a built-up area” is 65 km/h.
Page 99 of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act (d) states that “Goods vehicle the licensed MGW (Maximum Gross Weight) of which exceeds 2,540 kilogrammes (kgs) with or without trailer” has a maximum speed of 65 km/h outside a built-up area and 50 km/ “within a built-up area.”
This speed limit also applies to “goods vehicles” which do not have an MGW in excess of 2,540 kgs, part (e) also states.
These speed limits also apply to “motor omnibuses,” “motor vehicles constructed to carry more than ten passengers” and “private motor vehicles with a trailer.”
According to (a) Tractors are subject to a maximum speed limit of 35 km/h outside a built-up area and 20 km/h within a built-up area.
“Any other motor vehicles” have a speed limit of 80 km/h outside a built-up area and 50 km/h within a built-up area.
Last week Friday, speed guns were approved by Minister of Works and Transport Fitzgerald Hinds.
Earlier this week the speed guns caught seven offending motorists.
They were charged during an exercise conducted by the Traffic and Highway Patrol Branch along the eastbound lane of the Audrey Jeffers Highway.
Among those charged was a motorist who was ticketed for being five kilometres over the 80-kilometre speed limit, police said.
They have until July 19 to pay the fixed penalty notice of $1,000.