Get Ready to Buckle Up

The following new traffic laws will become effective on August 1, 2007.

• All motorists will have to use seat belts.
• Use of a cell phone while driving is forbidden unless you are using a hands-free mobile phone device.
• All children will have to be secured in child-restraint safety seats.
• Vehicles must stop at marked pedestrian crossings to give pedestrians the right of way.
• Riders of motorcycles, quads and three-wheelers will be “strongly advised” to wear helmets. (Don’t be surprised if this soon becomes required.)
  
  In St. Martin, the French side of the island, it is already required that you wear a seat belt, and use of cell phones by the driver is forbidden. When these two laws recently went into effect in St Barth, the gendarme (French National Police) were parked at the busiest traffic areas to enforce the new requirements. And, the fines were quite hefty! For example, 90 euros for failure to wear a seat belt!