Extend road safety directive to include all traffic offences

Publication date: 20 March 2008

EU should level the playing field and amend its proposed road safety directive to include all traffic offences.

The proposed directive on cross border enforcement of traffic offences, announced yesterday by the European Commission, will be a missed opportunity if it is not expanded to include civil and administrative offences, according to the SPARKS Programme.

SPARKS Programme members argue that limiting the directive only to drink driving, speeding, seat belts and ignoring a red traffic light, fails to address the wider issue of unfair and unequal treatment of drivers.

Breaches of traffic rules such as illegal parking, blocking a road junction and driving in a bus lane can also have a significant impact on road safety. However, the proposed directive does not cover these offences.

“Theses proposals are a good start. The European Commission now recognises that member states should have the means to treat non-resident and resident motorists equally and fairly. This directive begins to address the problem, but its scope needs to be substantially increased,” said SPARKS Programme manager Bill Blakemore.

 “The playing field is currently tilted strongly in favour of motorists driving on foreign number plates. They can ignore traffic laws with impunity, while local car owners and drivers know they must abide by the rules or face the consequences. This inequality must stop and this proposal should be extended to ensure that happens.

 “We need a holistic approach now, not a hotch potch of initiatives over many years tackling related traffic issues. The Commission must take a clear lead so there is consistency across the EU and all drivers are treated equally and fairly.”

A second concern for the SPARKS Programme is that the proposed directive only addresses the issue of data exchange; penalty enforcement itself is reliant upon Council Framework decision 2005/214/JHA, known as COPEN 24.

“The framework decision only applies to criminal offences and is not adequate for civil or administrative penalties such as parking tickets. Even when local authorities are able to identify foreign vehicle owners who commit offences they will not be able to enforce penalties abroad,” said Bill Blakemore.

“We call upon the Commission to address this second issue. Our Eurosparks legal research project, which the Commission itself co-funded, has identified alternative measures that we believe would resolve the problem.”