19/06/2012

Forum for Civic Initiatives (FIQ) in partnership with Institute for Development Policy (INDEP),launched a policy analysis "Policies on Traffic Safety" at Sirus Hotel in Pristina.  This conference was highly attended by representatives from relevant institutions: such as the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kosovo Police, driving schools and civil society.

The publication aims to present an overview of the actual situation with regards to traffic safety policies, the laws regulating this sector and their implementation. Additionally, the publication illustrates the competences of the responsible institutions in this sector, the implementation practices of the laws and policies in place, as well as a vision regarding the amendment and improvement of these laws and policies. 

The conference was characterized with intense discussions related to the publications findings such as:
 - The legal framework on traffic safety; the labor division amongst local and governmental institutions and clarification of rules and regulations is currently lacking:

 - Kosovo’s highways have only increased with 38km since 2005, in meantime the amount of used imported vehicles have raised from 12 465 in 2010 to 19 811 in 2011.

 -  Officials from the Ministry of Infrastructure expressed that the analysis paper lacked information on the existence of the Council on Traffic Safety within the Ministry of Infrastructure, and a strategy on traffic safety is currently in the works. However, most of participants noted that in Kosovo, wholesale institutions have formed different advices, which may not be as functional and inefficiency of institutions cannot be justified by the formation of councils.

The number of fatal accidents in the past four years has declined, while the total number of accidents in the same period has increased significantly. The main cause of accidents is reckless driving (23.56% of accidents are due to this offense, 0.48% are imposed fines), while the ninth cause of importance is speeding (3.75 % of accidents are a result of this offense, 38.92% are the imposition of fines). Even though half of the fines that are imposed by the police for speeding, and the small number of fines are given to reckless driving, fines are not improving the current situation of the accidents.

In general, discussions focused on the need for placing traffic safety as institutional priority, work in educating children and youth about traffic rules and behavior, the need for information and debate in the media, to build infrastructure and increase traffic safety, such as underpasses. And institutions were asked to use their statistics and other documents as this analysis to analyze and design road infrastructure, legislation and policies.