Demapan wants car rentals to resolve citations
Car rental companies on Saipan would soon be forced to settle traffic citations incurred by their clients, mostly tourists, if ever House Bill 20-41 becomes law.
Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) introduced HB 20-41 to establish requirements for vehicle rental businesses.
The public has been complaining about alleged problems encountered with some tourists. Many complain that tourists do not follow traffic rules and regulations while driving rental cars on Saipan’s roads.
Department of Public Safety officers often give tourists who violate traffic rules citations, but most of these are not resolved and fines are not paid, as they would only leave the CNMI after spending their vacation here.
There are some incidents when tourists on rental cars would allegedly make a full stop in the middle of the road, drive below the speed limit, make abrupt turns, not use their turn signals while making turns, and not obey traffic lights.
Demapan said the Legislature believes in the importance of supporting the tourism industry but visitors must also be mindful in assuring public safety, especially on the road.
“The Legislature finds that when the actions of individuals who fail to comply with traffic rules continue to increase, further jeopardizing the safety of the community, amendments to the law must be adjusted to augment such safety within the Commonwealth,” he said.
Demapan said the intent of HB 20-41 is to make sure all motorists would strictly follow traffic rules and regulations for everyone’s safety.
“This legislation will force vehicle owners to be mindful that they will also be held accountable if their vehicle is involved in unresolved traffic citations,” Demapan said.
HB 20-41 wants motor vehicle rental business owners not to rent or lease its motor vehicle to any person without a valid driver’s license issued from their country of origin.
Rental car customers, meanwhile, must have in their possession an English translation of the rented vehicle agreement with a valid picture driver’s license.
Demapan also wants the Bureau of Motor Vehicles not to renew the registration of cars or motor vehicles involved in traffic citations unless all infractions and fines have been paid or settled.
BEFORE this can be enacted (or along with this enactment) ALL tickets issued to tourists, a hard ‘copy’ must also be given to the rental car companies by the cop that issues the ticket, ON THE SAME DAY as soon as reasonably possible, along with the amount of the fine so that the amount can be charged to a credit card that the tourist used to rent the car OR a cash amount can be collected from the tourist on the return of the cars. Much like any damage done to the vehicle.
Unless this is done there is no way a rental company can know that a ticket has been issued against the car. In the case of a credit card being used the rental car company later on (within days) charge against the credit card UNLESS the card holder contests it later from their home country, then all is lost due to no signature.
Also the rental car company has to add some paperwork for the renters approval.
This is why (among other reasons) in other areas rental companies will not rent a car to anyone unless they use a credit card.
There must also be some kind of legal action such as a legal authorization allowing the Rental Car companies to be able to collect those fines in the name of the court etc (forgot that legal requirements)
There is so much that need to be done to make the rental cars companies legally liable for drivers actions especially in regards to “collecting” on tickets on moving violations and also parking tickets.
Bets look at other “tourist areas” such as Hawaii instead of going off half cocked without any thought research and knowledge, as usual, in these kinds bills.
I can foresee the lack of notification to the rental car company in the issuance of tickets and these companies will only find out at registration time about the tickets, EVEN if this type of law is enacted legally. THIS also must be address in the cases of the cops not notifying the company on the same day as to not hold them liable for the fine.
What about the possible rise in the insurance costs due to the number of tickets issued against certain rental cars?