Prevention of traffic accidents

Abstract

The author examines the traffic bill under consideration in the Senate, which criminalises traffic contraventions and infractions, increases fines and creates endangerment offences. It aims to demonstrate that criminal repression does not reduce accidents, defending the imposition of high administrative fines, proportional to the gravity of the infraction, as an effective preventive instrument, reserving criminal proceedings for cases of actual harm to life or physical integrity. It criticises the failure of current legislation, the impunity of offenders and merely symbolic toughening. It concludes in favour of rationalising the system, with a prompt and severe administrative response, dispensing with the criminalisation of mere endangerment.