Prevention of Traffic Offense in the Context of Reforming of the National Police of Ukraine and Legislation in the Field of Road Safety

Abstract

The urgency of the problem of road transport (motor transport) offenses is conditioned by the intensive increase in the number of sources of increased danger, in particular vehicles, and the complication of requirements for persons who control them. The unprecedented power, speed and driving power of the technology used are accompanied by the intensification of human mental activity. All this, with limited psychophysical capabilities of a person, causes an increase in the probability of committing road traffic offenses.

Road traffic offenses are offenses committed by negligence, which are understood as the totality of all acts committed for innocent fault of offenses in the form of negligence and insecurity in the territory of the country over a certain period of time and is characterized by quantitative (state and dynamics) and qualitative (structure) indicators. Among all offenses committed by negligence, motor vehicles are classified as technical negligence – that is, committed in the sphere of the operation or use of technical means, machines, mechanisms and other sources of increased safety.

The Criminal Code (Criminal Code) of Ukraine stipulates the components of road transport (motor transport) crimes: 1) violation of traffic rules and operation of vehicles (Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 2) commissioning of technically defective vehicles (Article 287 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 3) violation of rules, norms and standards concerning traffic safety (Article 288 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); 4) violations of pedestrians, cyclists, rides, repairmen, etc., which ensure the safe operation of motor vehicles (Article 291 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

It should be noted that the units of the patrol police, which are called to perform functions related to road safety, unfortunately, in the absence of time, are unable, for example, along with the design of the road accident, to perform more significant functions, primarily for the prevention of crime and offenses.

Nowadays the units of traffic police established on the basis of departments of the Department of Patrol Police, in our opinion, do not meet the challenges of the present, because their functions only include – ensuring road traffic on large highways. And in large cities, where traffic statistics are much more than on roads, road safety functions are assigned by the patrol police.

Due to the existence of the State Traffic Police, a lot of work on the special prevention of road traffic offenses and crimes was carried out by the traffic police and road state organizations (in particular, Ukravtodor) regarding the provision of roads with information signs, markings, fences and other arrangement, the inclusion of traffic lights modes, which contributes to the safety of the movement.

Consequently, according to our belief, in the structure of the National Police it is necessary to create a separate unit at the level of the Department of Road Police, as well as its engineering service, providing them with the main tasks: ensuring road safety; prevention of crimes and offenses; application of preventive measures of administrative influence and coercion of offenders among road users; registration of an accident (registration of necessary documents and organization of security measures at the site of an accident); provision of primary medical and emergency assistance to citizens in the event of an accident, as well as in other cases if necessary; prevention and elimination of the conditions of emergencies, which depend on the state of roads and vehicles; provision of roads with information signs, markings, fencing and other arrangement, inclusion of traffic lights modes, which 

contributes to traffic safety; ensuring public safety and order in the streets of settlements and beyond.

We agree with the proposals outlined in the draft law on increasing the criminal liability for violation of traffic safety rules, in particular, in the state of alcohol, narcotic or other intoxication (Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). At the same time, in our opinion, it is also necessary to strengthen criminal and administrative liability, especially in case of serious consequences (death or serious bodily harm), for other crimes and road traffic offenses.

The most important direction of the general social prevention of violation of the Rules of the road is to ensure the qualitative training and advanced training of drivers. Therefore, with a view to amending the Driving License, we propose, first of all, to focus on the training of drivers for at least 6 months in special state driving schools. In this case, special attention in teaching such driving schools is given to practical driving. You also need to install video monitoring of the driving license examinations, with this video taken out to be generally available on the Internet.

Thus, we can conclude that the adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Increasing Liability for Certain Violations in the Area of Road Safety» will contribute to the prevention of offenses in the field of road safety, more restrained and well-behaved behavior drivers on the roads and, as a result, will reduce the number of accidents.