Receiving a driver's license, one of the cause of accidents

Deaths in communications have marked increases in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in the preceding year, while injuries have seen decline.

Road safety recognitions say one of the reasons for the large number of accidents is also the inadequacy of young drivers, suggesting that in Kosovo you can get your driver's license by paying, even though he does not meet the criteria needed to equip him.

Days earlier, the large number of accidents had also reacted to Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, saying they should analyse why they are happening. He even said that there is doubt that there is weakness in getting a driver's license.

He has asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to analyse the causes leading up to the number of tragic accidents on the streets of Kosovo and to recommend measures to prevent these accidents.

“There are suspicions based that even issuing drivers' license or the way a driver's permission can be made in Kosovo. Consider this, but at the same time look at the police's operational communications plan”, the prime minister had said at the Government meeting.

Kosova Prees has sought answers from the Ministry of Infrastructure for patenting drivers, where through a written response they have said that if they face cases where the law is not respected, legal measures will be taken against violators.

“The driver's license department under its competencies made implementation of legislation in the field of testing a driver's license, and if we face cases (on the basis of facts) where legislation against offenders will not be respected will be taken before”, the Office for Media of the Ministry of Infrastructure said in response.

On the other hand, there is Visar Bajuk from the “College Team”, which says there is no secret that in Kosovo the driver's license can be obtained even through payment, but which, according to him, competent organs are silenced.

According to him, getting a driver's license in this way is causing the education of young drivers to have weaknesses and then accidents in communications are taking place.

Until the prime minister has information on that form, I believe the chief prosecutor had to have it earlier. This is the bad news in the sense of knowledge of a phenomenon that has reached the prime minister, whereas the organs on these issues have not provided any information. It is no big secret that in Kosovo the driver's license can be obtained even through payment without reaching the criteria. It's not something that has a certain structure that should be notified at the branch address, but there are indicators on information that it's organized and that it would be very difficult to find for the prosecution, because it's known where drivers' license is occupied”, he said.

From Kosovo police, they say the most frequent causers suspected of accidents are unsafe vehicle manipulation, distance failure and short-speed.

Rexhepi, the task director of the road communications division, has said of Kosova Prees, given the data they have for this year's January-March period, but even compared to last year there is an increase in the number of accidents ending fatally.

I can tell you that as far as accidents are concerned, accidents with injuries and damage can be said to be declining. The number of fatal accidents and people who have lost their lives in those accidents is on the rise. The number of fatal accidents is increasing for six more people than the same period last year, or we have 7 more people than January-March 2018. The number of injuries has scored 21.22 per cent, the number of injured persons has scored for 26.91 per cent, the number of material damage accidents has scored by 9.06 per cent, and the overall number is down by 13.52 per cent. While the number of counter-inventions which have been identified, measures have also been taken against the criminals are increasing for 18.50 per cent”, he stated.

Rexhepi says how the Kosovo Police consistently undertake plans and operations to influence drivers' awareness of respect for communications rules, in order to reduce the number of accidents.

He has made it known that the number of perpetrators has increased by 18.5 per cent compared to the same period last year, where 85332 tiketa were pronounced in 2018, while in the three months of this year, 101115 tickets were pronounced.

“is also implemented in terms of other measures, such as complementary, is the safeguard clause and negative points. There's a number of counter-advants who during the course of the three months alone are about 7 thousand counter-winners who got negative points and about 2 thousand countervasers were barred from driving for different periods, ranging from three to 24 months”, he said.

As for measures taken by police and other road security institutions, Visar Bajuk from the “College, the Temple” says that before these measures are undertaken there should be an analysis of the causes leading to accidents.

“needs to be studied the reasons why they are taking place and then starting to take precautions. In the situation, often under way, we have the impression that they are at peace, we have come to a situation where the situation is difficult, and we take a measure to try, and often those measures are having zero effects or are short - term. This is what the lack of knowledge of what they are causing to take the shooting measure, to measure the value of that measure, how much it has done to make improvement to increase the outcome, but this does not take place in the short term for a month, three, these are policies that should become three years old and forward, not after three months that measure ends, and no results”, he said.

The total number of accidents for the first three months of this year is 2 thousand and 949 accidents, and three thousand and 410 accidents had occurred a year earlier.