Blame Drivers, Not Cops

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko did not mince words when he met with the leadership of the DAI State Automotive Inspection Service on Nov. 12. “Every year we lose 7,500 people on the roads,” said Yushchenko, essentially blaming traffic police for 35,000 deaths in the last five years.

In Ukraine, more than 20 people die in traffic accidents every 24 hours.
He also criticized traffic cops for corruption. “I am convinced that some of you need to be fired, because you are unable to do your jobs. New people with clean hands and intentions should come to fill your place,” he said.

Yushchenko spelled out what he considers to be the solutions to the country’s high roadside mortality rate, including more video cameras, higher fines, and a 10-year validation period for licensing drivers.

These solutions appear to be aimed at the lack of driving culture among Ukrainian motorists.

Although the country’s traffic police are far from ideal, the lion’s share of responsibility for the situation on the country’s roadways must ultimately lie with the drivers using them.

The new parliament should not waste time enacting changes to the laws governing traffic fines and policing.

A database of traffic violators should be compiled and repeat offenders should have their driving privileges taken away according to a “point system” similar to the one used in the West.

We also urge municipal governments to set up hotlines that would allow pedestrians and drivers to call in and report life-threatening situations caused by drivers who feel that nobody is more important than they are.

And while some traffic police officials deserve to be fired to set an example, the wholesale dismissal of traffic police officers would fail to address the underlying problem of corruption in the police force in general; namely, that their salaries are far too low.

Raising police salaries is key to weeding out corruption throughout Ukraine’s traffic control system.

The extra funds needed for the raises can in part be generated by firing those who deserve to be fired, while offering early retirement packages to others who are unable to perform their duties.

Source: Kyiv Post