Of the almost one million drivers in Costa Rica, only 5% have sent in their email address to the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) for notification of traffic fines.
The deadline for submitting the information is June 26.
The measure is mandatory, as established by the Ley de Tránsito (traffic law).
Silvia Bolaños, Vice Minister of Transport and former director of Cosevi, said the measure aims to create a database of drivers to facilitate the reporting of traffic violations.
Failure to send in the email address, the Cosevi will publish the notification in the La Gacetta – the official government newsletter – to make the notice official.
A driver has 10 working days from notification to either pay the fine or appeal it. In the case where there is no email address on record, the 10 days starts from the day of publication in La Gaceta, that is to say the offending driver is not notified personally of the traffic ticket, but is fully responsible to pay it in full.
To register your email address, drivers have to fill out a form and send it to the Cosevi. The form is available at the website www.csv.go.cr or at any Tránsito (traffic) police station, Riteve (vehicle inspection) or Cosevi central and regional offices
Once the form is filled out it should be sent to direccionelectronicavial@csv.go.cr. For those who subscribe to “digital signature” they will have confirmation, all others not.
To ensure receipt of the information, the form can also be personally delivered at the Cosevi offices in La Uruca (San José) or any Cosevi office across the country, regional drivers licensing centres, at any Tránsito sation or at any Riteve station.
If the vehicle is owned in the name of a corporation, the process is a bit more complicated. The form must be signed by a legal representative of the company, and submitted with an original and photocopy of the “personería jurídica” (legal document provided by the national registry on the corporation) OR present the original registration certificate issued by the Property Registry and a list of all vehicles owned by the corporation. Note, that to obtain a personería jurídica the corporation has to be up to date with its corporate tax.
Bolaños explained that, according to Ley 8968 de Protección de la Persona frente al Tratamiento de sus Datos Personales (the Protection of the Individual from the treatment of your Personal Data), the information will be kept confidential and its use restricted only to send notifications related to traffic tickets and fines.
Source: Traffic Law Costa Rica
