THE OBJECTIVE responsibility system should be fully utilised on Slovak roads by the end of next year at the latest, said Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák and Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar on January 15 when presenting a new project costing €49 million, the TASR newswire reported.
The law on introducing the objective responsibility system, which allows police to fine drivers even without requiring them to pull over, has been in force since mid-2012. A semi-automated form of objective responsibility was introduced last year. According to the police president, it helped to deal with 7,406 driving offences in 2014.
A lack of money precluded the acquisition of a fully automated system, however. This has changed now that European funds can be used for this purpose thanks to altered priorities in the new programme period.
Kaliňák explained that the project should help to meet a new obligation concerning traffic safety according to which there should be no more than 200 road deaths per year in Slovakia by 2020, whereas in 2014 it was 258.
Besides lowering the number of road deaths, the Interior Minister expects the system to contribute towards reducing corruption, as the fully automated system removes direct contact between drivers and police officers. Kaliňák stressed that the priority of the system will not be to measure speed or to cash in on fines from drivers but at smooth traffic flows and road safety.
The Interior Ministry is about to launch a tender to find a supplier that should be completed by the summer.
“We’ll require the system to be fully functional by the end of next year at the latest,” Kaliňák said, as quoted by TASR, adding that it could be partly introduced as early as this year.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
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