The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office advocates for stricter penalties for traffic offenders

September 24, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. The Prosecutor's Office of the Vitebsk region advocates for stricter penalties for traffic rule violators. This was stated today at a briefing on road accidents in the region by the First Deputy Prosecutor of the Vitebsk region, Alexander Chadyuk, according to a BELTA correspondent. According to the first deputy prosecutor, the complex of preventive measures aimed at improving the culture of drivers and pedestrians is already quite extensive. Measures of responsibility against violators are also applied strictly. "However, it has not yet been possible to fundamentally change the situation. This is evidenced by the high death rate on the roads and numerous protocols against road users," said Alexander Chadyuk, emphasizing that it is necessary to find new measures of influence, to return to methods of combating violators through broad public condemnation. Alexander Chadyuk proposes to show videos with violators on television, to print their photographs in newspapers, to post them on shame boards, to publicly lead violating pedestrians by the hand across the pedestrian crossing, to send them to community service, widely announcing these events in the media. "Shame is a natural factor in regulating behavior. For many, this can be an effective method. Those who have already lost this human trait and do not value the lives of others should be educated most severely with money, applying the harshest penalties, up to criminal liability," believes the first deputy prosecutor. In January-August of the current year, 443 road traffic accidents occurred in the Vitebsk region, which is 20% less compared to the same period last year. 123 people died during this period, including five children (8 and 2 more people, respectively, than in January-August 2008). Employees of the traffic police department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Internal Affairs Directorate identified 130.2 thousand traffic violations, which is 40.5 thousand more cases. 4.1 thousand drivers were detained for driving under the influence of alcohol, including 341 for the second time within a year. -0-