Parliament – K. Ah. Karamanlis: The new KOK will aim at driver compliance

According to the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Costas Karamanlis, the penalties of the new Road Traffic Code will be attributed to the driver and not to the vehicle. Answering a relevant topical question of the MP of A ‘Athens of ND, Fotini Pipili, Mr. Karamanlis said that the goal of the new KOK is not the penalties to have a blind-punitive character, “on the contrary we must aim at the compliance of drivers, therefore “the penalties must be fair and commensurate with the seriousness and seriousness of each infringement.”

In this context, Mr. Karamanlis added, an important change is that the penalties will mainly concern the driver and not the vehicle. As the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport noted, we will have severe penalties for violations that can cause a serious accident such as violation of a red light, speeding, overtaking, driving under the influence of alcohol.

Mr. Karamanlis pointed out that there were these, but they were not strict enough: There was a downward equation. They were punished the same with less dangerous violations or, many times in the past, we had phenomena, some punishments being extermination, with the result that police had second thoughts to impose them.

For her part, Ms. Pipili raised the issue of delinquency and antisocial behavior of drivers, called for the abolition of the one-person right of traffic commanders to delete calls, while calling on the ministry to cooperate with the relevant bodies and on the other hand to cut funding to those who do not comply with the provisions, eg in the municipalities, whose municipal police do not supervise the observance of the KOK.

Responding to Ms. Pipili about the relevant legislative initiatives of the government, Mr. Karamanlis said that we will introduce the National Road Safety Fund, which will collect the money from the fines of the KOK, which will distribute it to the municipalities, but ” “Only for road safety actions. But if the municipalities will not be able to use them, they will not take them.”

At the same time, Mr. Karamanlis announced a series of other measures, which will be included in the upcoming legislation for the KOK: We will propose systematic interventions such as the creation of zones with a limit of 30 km in specific urban areas, we will redesign many intersections in cooperation with municipalities , we will widen sidewalks, envisage the upgrading of roads and signage and will adopt gentle traffic measures in the historic centers, for the benefit of pedestrians but also of tourism.

Finally, he said that it should be made “obvious”, to create a metropolitan body – so that not everyone in charge can “throw the ball” to the other – under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport and the participation of all bodies. He cited the issue of catering as an example: We are the only city in Europe to supply shops, almost 12 hours a day. This cannot be done. We must take, seriously, all the actors to deal with the problems. Otherwise, we will do what we usually do, we will bring a nice law to a vote and (then) it will have an implementation problem, the minister said.