Government Cracking Down on Traffic Offenders
The government has proposed tougher fines for traffic violations that have been the main cause of the worst road accidents in a bid to curb road deaths. Interior Minister Dragutin Mate explained on Thursday that amendments to the road safety act were just a short-term measure until the government put forward a more comprehensive motion.
On the one hand the government-crafted amendments lessen fines for offences that do not affect road safety directly, while on the other they substantially increase fines for the most dangerous violations. These include reckless speeding, aggressive starting-up and braking, driving under the influence and reckless overtaking, Transport Minister Radovan Zerjav listed.
Those doing over 80 km/h in a 50 km/h zone are now fined EUR 500 and get five points on their licence, while the new fine is EUR 1,000 plus ten penalty points. Drivers caught in such offences twice within two years would lose their licence automatically. Mate said such measures were aimed at securing safety in 30 km/h zones in the areas around schools, kindergartens and hospitals.
Furthermore, the amendments reduce administrative barriers, give more powers to traffic wardens and introduce a registry of missing or stolen drivers' licences.
According to Mate, the motion also specifies provisions that the Constitutional Court has found deficient, while it also transposes the relevant European directives. Under these, a new licence in the form of plastic card is to be introduced.
Minister Mate also said that the police would get new, high-performance cars with in-car cameras that they could use on motorways to trace and stop cars doing extreme speeds.
Slovenian roads have claimed 246 lives this year, while 202 people died in road accidents in the same period last year, show the latest available police statistics, issued on Monday, 22 October. While the death toll for the whole of 2006 stood at 262, road accidents claimed 258 lives in 2005, which means the number of casualties has been on the increase.
The most frequent causes of accidents are speeding, wrong direction of travel, disrespect for the right of way, reckless overtaking and violations by pedestrians.
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