Draft law No. 12172 , developed by a group of people's deputies together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Patrol Police of Ukraine and experts of the Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law within the framework of the "For Safe Roads" Campaign, was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The draft law increases responsibility for repeated violations of traffic rules, providing, in addition to fines, the possibility of revocation of a driver's license for the third violation recorded during the year. The purpose of the changes is to reduce the number of road accidents and save lives on the roads, as the current system of fines is ineffective against systematic drivers.
 

People's deputy Oleksandr Gorenyuk , one of the initiators of this draft law, says that these changes will allow for a simplified mechanism for so-called "recidivist offenders": "The draft law concerns road traffic safety and aims to introduce the idea of "penalty points" for drivers who constantly commit dangerous violations of traffic laws, they will be severely fined or deprived of the right to drive," Goreniuk emphasized.

The bill proposes a progressive system of fines for the most dangerous violations, such as:

• crossing pedestrian crossings, not giving preference to pedestrians at unregulated crossings;
• driving at a prohibitory signal of a traffic light or gesture of the traffic controller;
• traffic rules at the intersection;
• overtaking and oncoming departure.

This list was not chosen by chance: these violations are considered among the most dangerous in international practice. For example, in Poland, where the system of penalty points operates, for such violations as running a red light, violating the rules of crossing pedestrian crossings or overtaking, the driver will receive 15 points out of the 24 permissible per year - that is, for two such violations, the driver's license will be taken away from the violator.

According to the proposed changes, the first violation will remain unchanged — the driver will pay a fine of 340 to 510 hryvnias. However, if he violates again within a year (any of the four defined rules), the fine will increase to 1,020 hryvnias. For the third violation within a year, the National Police will be able to go to court to impose a fine of 2,550 hryvnias and to revoke the driver's license for a period of 6 to 12 months. These changes will apply only to those who regularly ignore the rules, including impudent drivers, who will now face a real threat of losing their licence for a long period of time. This will allow law enforcement to respond more quickly to dangerous behaviour on the roads, preventing road accidents with victims.

"We are working to ensure that Ukrainian roads are safe. Currently, there is a serious problem with systematic violators of traffic rules, who have 20-30 violations for the same offense, because the current liability does not affect them. So we made our proposals to this draft law, because such changes are meant to combat such violators who disregard all possible rules and, in particular, the norms established in society," commented Oleksiy Biloshitskyi , first deputy chief of the Patrol Police Department.

The non-governmental organization "Vision Zero" calls on the Verkhovna Rada to support draft law No. 12172, uniting to protect the lives of citizens. Every day of delay is a lost opportunity to save life on the roads of Ukraine. You can familiarize yourself with the draft law and the explanatory note on the portal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by following the link.