July 19, 2006 — St. Thomas/Water Island Administrator James A. O'Bryan Jr., chairman of Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's Abandoned Vehicle and Beatification Task Force has released the latest ownership list of 52 abandoned vehicles confiscated during the last two initiatives of the task force. The vehicles were removed from Tutu Hi Rise, Donoe Road, Red Hook, Sub Base, Nisky, Mandahl, Smith Bay, Vessup Road, Frydenhoj and Contant. "Most of these vehicles were found with piles of garbage, vermin and other debris and posed a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the community in which they existed. Other cars were removed from guts which could result in heavy flooding of neighborhoods during rainstorms," O'Bryan said.
Liens in the amount of $250. have been placed against the last registered owner of these vehicles at the Motor Vehicle Bureau. Persons wishing to reclaim their vehicles have fifteen days to pay this fee at the Department of Property and Procurement. At the expiration of this period, the vehicle will be disposed of in accord with law. The government also reserves the right to bring charges in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands for violation of Chapter 19 of the Virgin Islands Code which makes car abandonment a criminal act and a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, violators arc subject to minimum fine of $ 1,000 ("or the first offense or imprisonment of not less than one day or more than 180 days or both.
O'Bryan announced that the task force intends to launch an initiative against the large number of illegally operating car repair shops in residential neighborhoods in the immediate future. Persons who have taken their vehicles to these illegal operations arc warned to remove their cars from these locations immediately. Once these operations commence, cars found there or along the public streets under the jurisdiction of illegal car repair operators will be deemed abandoned. They will be confiscated and subject to the car abandonment laws of the territory.
"The law is clear, the last registered owner of these vehicles is to be held accountable for cars once they are found abandoned and there will be an across the board. application of the law," O'Bryan concluded
Click here to access the list.
