20.1 Minor Traffic Offences

The GPF Learner/Driver Theoretical Programme SUBJECT REFERENCE lists thirteen subjects. Number 13 is Minor Traffic offenses (the booklet spelling) and the source line is Laws of Guyana, Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Regulations) Chapter 51:02. That is a different drawer from certificate of fitness (subject 1), drivers' licences (subject 2), insurance (subject 4), or Caribbean first aid (subject 6). This section teaches that drawer: everyday equipment and conduct rules that still appear on a Guyana learner theory paper.

Quick Answer: Learn named, published Regulation and Code examples — lights, horn, mirror, silencer, road lines, vehicle control, exhibiting a licence or certificate of fitness. Do not invent a complete GY$ ticket table. The April 2025 Guyana Road Traffic Code adds MUST / MUST NOT lines. Failure to observe the Code is not of itself a crime, but it may be used in proceedings. Serious driving (death by reckless driving, reckless driving, careless driving) is section 20.3; seat belts are section 20.2.

This OpenExamPrep chapter is independent study of those published Regulations, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act Cap. 51:02, and the Guyana Road Traffic Code. It is not a GPF booklet, not a Police lecture script, and not a claim of official approval, partnership, or exact equivalence.

What “minor” means on this syllabus

“Minor” in the programme title does not mean you may ignore the rule. It means the subject is the Regulations cluster of fittings and ordinary road conduct, as distinct from the Act’s causing death by reckless or dangerous driving. A dark lamp on the East Bank, an unnecessary horn blast in Georgetown, or driving with one hand on the roof (the Code’s own example under the control rule) is still an offence in published text. It is not the same charge as killing someone by reckless driving on a public road.

Keep three layers separate when you revise:

1. Regulations (subject 13) — lamps, warning appliance, silencer, mirror, wiper, speedometer, tint, noise, horn, reversing further than necessary, control and full view, road-surface lines, stopping too close to a corner, exhibiting the certificate of fitness and the licence.
2. Act driving and safety offences — speed, reckless driving, careless driving, drink and drugs, hand-held phones, seat belts and child restraints (Part VIA is section 20.2).
3. Guyana Road Traffic Code — directions for road users, including the MUST / MUST NOT block around rules 76–81.

Guyana is left-hand traffic. Keep left (near side). Overtake on the right (off side). A “minor” line offence or a failure to overtake on the off side is still tested against that rule of the road, including on named crossings such as the Demerara Harbour Bridge and the Canje Bridge, where posted limits and care still apply.

Do not invent a penalty table

The Theoretical Programme names subject 13 and points you at the Regulations. It does not print a complete modern dollar ticket menu in that subject line. This guide will not invent one. Where the Act itself publishes a figure — seat-belt amounts in section 20.2, reckless-driving fines in section 20.3 — quote that figure. Where a later ticket notice exists outside the three-book package, confirm it with GPF or the current statutory notice. Do not memorise a social-media GY$ list as if it were the syllabus.

What is published in Cap. 51:02 is a Third Schedule of offences with demerit points. Those points are not a GY$ tariff. They are recorded in addition to whatever punishment the court imposes, or when a person pays a penalty under the Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) Act notice procedure. On a single occasion, if two or more listed offences are proved or paid, the Act records the greatest number of points for one offence only.

Published examples you can actually find

Use this table as a source map. The demerit-point column is the Third Schedule figure, not a fine in dollars.

Learn the conduct, not a rumour about the dollar amount.

Lights. An unlighted motor vehicle during the hours of darkness is a named Regulation offence. So is having no device for deflecting the headlight beam. On unlighted roads the Code separately tells you not to rely on side lights only. Night-driving detail belongs with the lighting chapter; here you only need the offence: if the hours of darkness require lamps, an unlighted motor vehicle is already in the published list.

Horn and warning appliance. The vehicle must have a warning appliance. Unnecessary use of the horn is a separate Regulation offence. Code rule 76 is the teaching line learners actually remember: sounding the horn does not give you the right of way and does not remove the duty to take every precaution to avoid an accident. A Georgetown hold-up is not a licence to lean on the horn.

View and control. No reflecting mirror is listed. Regulation 109(2) and Code rule 77 require you to place yourself so you can exercise proper control over the vehicle and retain a full view of the road and traffic ahead. The Code’s example: you should not drive with one hand holding on to the roof, because in a sudden defect or other emergency you might not control the vehicle properly.

Reversing. Travelling backwards further than necessary is listed. The Code adds: do not reverse from a minor or access road into a main road; reverse into a minor or access road, preferably one on your left, and make sure the main road is clear. Before you reverse, look around or glance in the mirror for someone about to overtake you and for children or an obstruction in the blind area near the back wheels.

Lines and corners. Failure to obey lines on road surfaces is listed. So is stopping within thirty feet from any corner. Those are Regulation facts, not unofficial “about a car length” guesses.

Papers on the vehicle. Failure to exhibit the certificate of fitness and failure to exhibit the licence are listed. Subject 1 already taught you that driving without a certificate of fitness in force is an Act offence. Subject 13 still expects the exhibit duty as a Regulation item.

Act provisions that sit next to that list, still not “death by reckless driving,” include riding on the outside of a motor vehicle (running board, wings, fenders, or the outside except on a properly constructed seat or on a trailer drawn thereby) and causing or permitting more than one trailer to be drawn. Leaving a vehicle at rest on a road in a position, condition, or circumstances likely to cause danger or obstruction is a published Act offence. Failing to stop when required by police is listed in the Schedule. If the vehicle has broken down and cannot be remedied in a reasonable time, or its presence is likely to obstruct or cause danger, the person in charge must take reasonable steps to remove it.

Code MUST / MUST NOT lines (rules 78–81)

Rule 78. You MUST observe speed limits, traffic signs and signals, and the directions of Police controlling traffic, and stop when required by Police in uniform. You must give precedence on pedestrian crossings.

Rule 79. You MUST NOT drive when you are under the influence of drink or drug.

Rule 80. You MUST NOT drive recklessly or in a manner or at a speed which is dangerous to the public.

Rule 81. You MUST DRIVE with due care and attention and with reasonable consideration for other road users at all times.

Rules 79–81 are the Code’s language for the Act offences taught in section 20.3. Subject 13 still expects you to know that those MUST NOT lines exist in the Code you were issued at Traffic Headquarters, Eve Leary, as part of the three-book package.

The Highway Code is not a secret criminal code of its own

The Commissioner of Police prepares the highway code — the Road Traffic Code in your package. The Act says a failure to observe any provision of that code shall not of itself render that person liable to criminal proceedings of any kind, but any such failure may in any proceedings (whether civil or criminal, and including proceedings for an offence under the Act) be relied upon by any party as tending to establish or to negative any liability which is in question.

So: breaking a Code direction is not automatically “the crime of breaking the Code.” Driving without due care, or without a lamp at night, is still an offence because the Act or Regulations say so. The Code is how GPF teaches you to drive; the Act and Regulations are how a charge is framed. When a booklet abridgement is thinner than the statute, learn both: the exam is derived largely from the GPF package, and Cap. 51:02 remains the statute.

Demerit points are published — they are still not a dollar table

Section 33A records Third Schedule points against the licence on conviction, or when a prescribed penalty is paid. A written notice is sent when the record shows six or more but less than ten points. If accumulated points amount to ten or more but less than sixteen, the published disqualification period is six months. Sixteen or more, or twelve or more over a twelve-month period, is published as one year. If you ever receive a Licensing Authority notice, follow that notice; do not treat a friend’s story as the statute.

When you sit the electronic multiple-choice paper, expect subject 13 to look like a named situation (unnecessary horn, unlighted vehicle, no mirror, reversing further than necessary, thirty feet from a corner, one hand on the roof), not a request to recite an unpublished complete GY$ menu.