After a large number of traffic accidents resulting in fatalities and serious injuries, the traffic police of the Canton Sarajevo (CS) Ministry of Internal Affairs have intensified stricter measures against reckless drivers to remove them from traffic and protect other participants.
In the first two months of this year, the police temporarily confiscated 40 vehicles, a trend that continued into March. Last year, a total of 82 vehicles were temporarily seized from reckless drivers who drove without a driver’s license or had a large number of traffic violation fines. The record holder, whose vehicle was confiscated last year, had unpaid fines totaling around 270.000 BAM.
“When it comes to traffic safety in the CS area, in 2023, 21 people died in traffic accidents. Police officers and the management of the CS Ministry of Internal Affairs police administration have taken a series of actions to improve traffic safety conditions, primarily to prevent these severe consequences in traffic accidents, and to prevent the number of fatalities,” said the deputy commander of the Traffic Unit of the CS Ministry of Internal Affairs, Elvedin Mahmutovic.
Unlike Sarajevo, police in smaller cantons in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) mainly take preventive measures as they have a lower number of traffic accidents.
“We mainly act preventively, thank God, because we don’t have much experience with fatal traffic accidents,” said Damir Bogunic, the commissioner of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton (BPC) Gorazde Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Experts believe that people who constantly commit traffic violations should be prevented from participating in traffic. They emphasize that BiH has fairly good legal regulations but that it is necessary to work on the prevention and education of traffic participants.
“People who constantly commit traffic violations need to be adequately sanctioned. If these people have already been sanctioned, and rightly so, we must establish a register of recidivists as soon as possible, given that headlines often appear in newspapers stating that someone was caught with 30.000 or 100.000 BAM in fines,” emphasized traffic expert Nikola Copic.
Residents of Sarajevo support police activities, emphasizing that they do not feel safe as drivers, especially as pedestrians.
The Sarajevo police emphasize that controls on people who constantly commit traffic violations, street racers, alcohol consumption by traffic participants, and checks on the technical condition of motor vehicles have been intensified to improve traffic safety. If it is determined that a particular driver has committed two or more offenses that significantly affect traffic safety and the occurrence of traffic accidents, measures are taken to temporarily confiscate the vehicle from such individuals, and a request is submitted for the initiation of misdemeanor proceedings against them to the competent court, where the court decides whether to permanently confiscate their vehicle. The Municipal Court in Sarajevo issued a decision to permanently confiscate the vehicle of one repeat offender.
E.Dz.
