Friday, March 28, 2014

Hey, hey, wait a minute - that's illegal!!

From our struggles to get driver's licenses, we have become fairly familiar with the Peruvian traffic laws.  There are three levels of infractions - leve (lowest - "light"), grave (medium - "serious") and muy grave (highest - "very serious!").
It is clearly stated that sounding one's auto horn without a life-threatening reason is an infraction at the grave level, warranting a fine equal to 6% of UIT (an annually shifting amount presently at about $3,000.00 USD), thus one stands at risk of a $180.00 penalty.
Yeah, right.  He looks pretty uneasy, no?
There are even signs warning against the honking of horns.
 This sign says, "It is prohibited to honk your horn!"
It is now known that the shortest measurable quantity of time is not the attosecond (.0000000000000000001 second), rather it is the time between the light turning yellow, indicating an upcoming green signal, and the Peruvian taxi driver 17 cars back honking his horn.  
It is apparent from the condition of taxis and other autos here that the required annual equipment safety inspection must be to check the horn only, without which the vehicle would be obviously inoperable.
If drivers were actually fined half of what they are supposed to be penalized for this grave infraction, the city  could fix a pothole or two, or even, gasp, fix the sidewalks, or, double gasp, provide public restrooms instead of the walls of buildings.
Anyway, we hope that you are not guilty of any grave (much less muy grave!) infractions yourself.
Dave & Paula

2 comments:

bestgrandkidsever said...

If it's anything like Taiwan, the laws only apply if you're an American!

Patti said...

That's one Peruvian traffic law I would have no problem complying with, which means my dreams of being a taxi driver in South America are over.