English
Main|Success Stories
Back

Successful advocacy for the “For Safe Roads” campaign: launch of photo and video recording system in Ukraine

Since the creation of the For Safe Roads Campaign in 2016, we have been advocating for and emphasizing the need to introduce a system of photo and video recording of traffic violations in our country.

The purpose of our campaign is to reduce the number of casualties on the roads of Ukraine. For four years now we have been participating in numerous events, discussions, debates, we have been analyzing draft laws, preparing analytical materials, conducting awareness raising campaigns and events, explaining and emphasizing the importance of compliance with the basic traffic rules.

Unfortunately, as many as 3,500 people die and another 30,000 people are injured on the roads of Ukraine every year. From January to April 2020 (inclusive) alone, 950 people died on the roads of Ukraine, i.e. an average of 8 people died per day, and the number of injured reached almost 8,500 people. An average of 70 people are injured in Ukraine every day. The statistics of road accidents with casualties in our country is the highest among European countries.

Therefore, we have repeatedly called on the government to work systematically to address this issue and to make decisions that will help prevent accidents. One of such solutions is the introduction and launch of a system of automatic photo and video recording of traffic violations. These include, in particular, the urgent re-enactment of speed control, in particular, the creation of an automatic speed control system (https://bit.ly/3gwR81m).

We held a campaign “Attention! Accident-Dangerous Ukraine” on road safety and made demands on the Ukrainian government: ensure speed control on the roads, increase penalties for violations of the rules and introduce “sobriety checkpoints” for drivers (https://bit.ly/3darOw9).

We also held an exhibition in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine dedicated to the problems of road accidents in our country. Drew attention of the parliamentarians to the fact that speeding was a crucial factor in every other fatal accident (https://bit.ly/3eEu92P).

Numerous appeals and statements to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine with a request to re-enact speed control by introducing a system of automatic recording of traffic violations throughout the country included substantial justifications of international practices on its necessity. The introduction of this system will help reduce the number of accidents with casualties by 17-20%, and the number of all accidents by 10% (https://bit.ly/36F1sQw).

Presentations at meetings, arrangement of joint discussions with the representatives of public authorities and international institutions, discussion and development of specific solutions, steps to reduce the number of casualties on the roads of Ukraine – these were the steps of the Campaign ‘For Safe Roads’ to achieve this goal. It is worth mentioning, in particular, participation in the round table “Speed Management in Settlements” (https://bit.ly/2Mjn5MV), the conference “Road Safety in Ukraine” (https://bit.ly/2ZHgkMJ) and other expert discussions.

Development of speed limitation techniques (https://bit.ly/2B394QO), creation of the Manifesto “For Safe Roads” (https://bit.ly/34DII2u), signed by 26 organizations working in the field of road safety in Ukraine, work on road safety draft laws, preparation of information and analytical materials in social media, coverage of events and long-term work on the introduction of photo and video recording as an effective tool through which thousands of lives can be saved, finally succeeded.

A historic event not only for Ukrainian drivers, but also for all citizens of Ukraine who can feel a little safer on the roads of Ukraine took place on June 1, 2020. We are glad and proud that we have made every effort to launch a full-fledged system of photo and video recording of traffic violations in our country.

During these years, we have cooperated with the representatives of many NGOs and public authorities, so we are grateful to them for the support and implementation of such an important tool on the roads of Ukraine: