Transport Ministry Eyes 24-Hour Highway Patrols and Traffic Enforcement

The Ministry of Transportation says enforcing traffic laws remains a priority as it continues the process of bringing in more personnel. Chief Executive Officer Chester Williams says the aim is to have highway patrols and enforcement operating around the clock.

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport: “We will be the first to admit to you that we are hoping to reach where we want to be with the amount of staff that has been approved for us by cabinet. But again, the process, the bureaucracy that we have to go through, we have still not gotten there as yet. We are at the stage where the Ministry of Public Service has approved the creation of the positions and so now we’re waiting for the Ministry of Finance to create the positions and to allocate the funds for us to be able to hire the additional personnel needed at the Department of Transport. Until then, we work in tandem with the police, but again, the police do have other mandates in terms of fighting crime. And so we cannot always get police to work with us as we want to, because they’ll be otherwise occupied. So we’re hoping that pretty soon we’ll be able to recruit the additional personnel needed by the Department of Transport so that we will be able to have 24 hours presence on the highway to do enforcement.”

The push comes amid renewed concern about the movement of houses and other wide loads following the death of Police Sergeant Jiovanni Ponce. He was killed on October 10 when his SUV collided with a house being transported near Cotton Tree Village, between miles forty-two and forty-three on the George Price Highway. His wife and an eleven-year-old boy survived with minor injuries.  In addition to enforcement, CEO Williams also spoke about measures the ministry is exploring to make these moves safer and prevent further collisions.

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport: “Perhaps what we will do hereafter is that every time they want to move a house, even though they have an annual permit, they will have to contact the Department of Transport, the Department of Transport will go and inspect the house before they move off from where they’re leaving to ensure that they’re in compliance with the requirements of the permit. So that is something we discussed this morning as a possibility. moving forward. The issue of weekends, perhaps that’s another thing that we can look at to exempt movement of houses on weekends, particularly Friday night and Saturday night. So there are things that perhaps we can do to enhance, but again, we will still yield to Cabinet to see what is going to be Cabinet decision moving forward and then whatever Cabinet decide, then we see how we go from there, but we can make some recommendations.” 

Ponce’s death follows at least two other fatal collisions involving houses being transported since November last year. On November 29, 2025, fifty-three-year-old Pastor Julian Bol died in a collision involving a house being moved along the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway near San Juan Village.  Less than three weeks later, thirty-eight-year-old Dean Martin Perez was killed when his SUV collided with a house being transported near mile eighteen on the George Price Highway. That crash occurred around midnight on the night of December 17.