Kosovo's number of accidents decline after new law

The high fines set out by the new law on road traffic rules seem to have yielded the first results for the decline of accidents in Kosovo, though worrying still remains the incriminating of the fines pronounced.

Security experts in traffic see high fines as a temporary solution, while citizens' education and awareness of the risk in traffic see it as the best solution to boost security in communications.

The director of the Road Communications Division, Samedin Mehmeti for Kosova Prees, has declared that new measures defined by the new law on road traffic regulations have marked progress in the decline of accidents.

Kosovo Police statistics say 300 fewer accidents were marked in the first two months of 2018, compared to the same period in 2017.

These measures have given us some results that we currently have, for example, fewer than 300 accidents in general that are less than 12 percent in proportion to last year, if we want to tear down -23 percent in accidents, if we want to look at fatal accidents, what most cause us pain is accidents that cause the biggest damage of human life, we have about -11 percent. We will pass the situation on to traffic, we will also pass on the effects the new law is giving it and we will try to connect it to other preventative measures”, he said.

According to Mehmet, Kosovo Police for the January-February 2018 period have declared a total of 53 thousand fines, where about 38 per cent of them have been pronounced for over-speed.

It's about 53,000 fines, which is a big deal of co-operation... our goal is to reduce speed because one of those major factors that have so far contributed to growth, especially fatal accidents and large material damage, and it's high speed. We also have a large number of fines somewhere around 38 per cent of fines have been pronounced for example for speed that means there's a large number of traffic violations related to speed“, Mehmeti said.

For the recognition of road traffic issues, Muhamed Krasniqi, the increase in fines is immediate and not permanent solution.

And you see the generation's education in the risk of communication as a firm guarantor of road safety.

I don't think the pronunciation of fines is guaranteeing safety on the road, but I think that for a lasting and long-term security, concrete measures should be taken, working with all the participants in traffic in the field of education and education, starting from the nests to continue then at all levels of schooling because it is a guarantor of safety sustainability in the longer term of time, while the pronunciation of fines such as happened last month or last month, I think that is an election, not a permanent one which would offer security to participants in the road, he said.

According to security case expert Muhamed Krasniqi, the solutions should also be found for the execution of fines pronounced by Kosovo police.

“I don't think that assigning fines to the standard of life, these are simply policies and strategies that the state assigns with the best purpose to increase security in the streets, because such actions happen everywhere, but the disaster here is that these solutions are made right there, that is, it's not a longer period that would allow them to develop more interest, and mutually put together to determine how to increase security in the streets... I think it would be better thought to be like this and work out of the fines and then find the forms of institutions responsible for the executional form that are done by the thousands of fines now that we've executed in order to do without a prioritional order, and then I think the institutions would have to do whatever else.

Unlike January 1st this year in Kosovo, the new Law for Road Traffic Rules has been enacted, with which fines have increased for all who violate the rules in communications.

Some of the harshest sentences the new law has imposed on road traffic regulations are:

1. The driving of a car without a driver's license is fined between 500 and 1500 euros, and marks three negative points of 12 per driver's license.
2. The driver who drives under the influence of alcohol can be fined for up to 900 euros, and a ban on motor vehicle management is pronounced on three negative points in a driver's driver's license.
3. The speed crossing of 50 km/h if with traffic signs it is not defined otherwise, the penalty is fined three hundred (300) to nine hundred (900) euros, except for the fine, it is pronounced the protective measure of driving motorly in length of at least one (1) year, and five (5) negative points are pronounced.
4. Errors in the overpass or overpasses on the right side are punished from 100 to 300 euros, the driver can be pronounced the measure of prohibition with motor action by up to six months, and the marking of a negative point.
5. Starting with momentum or racing is fined up to 300 euros, and a negative point can be pronounced.
6. 150 euros is fine for all drivers who pass when red traffic lights are on, so those drivers were also marked three negative points, while without a driver's license remains for 3 months.
7. The one-way driving will be between 70 and 210 euros, and a negative point in driver's license.
8. Footmen using telephones and hearings in their ears during the crossing of the roads, and the penalty for the offense is 20 euros.

Unlike the Kosovo Police statistics in January-November 2017 alone, a total of 16,122 accidents from them 107 have been fatalised, while a total of 371 thousand and 976 fines have been pronounced.