Last month TheDaily reported how the police force in Slovakia will start fining people by post instead of stopping them after an offence is committed, and daily Pravda writes today about how the new undercover system is working.
To date the police have reportedly sent out around 528 fines to unsuspecting drivers who have committed some traffic offence and been caught by a speed trap or camera in the last two weeks in January. Most of those fined are from the Trnava region, which may be just that the police there are more zealous about their new found power.
Penalties between EUR 20 – EUR 800 have been sent out to the drivers, mostly for speeding offences. The idea of objective liability that is being applied to certain offences, includes the likes of ignoring a no entry sign, illegal stopping, not giving way, running a red light, illegal turning or crossing, or overtaking at points where it is not permitted.
As a special incentive bonus, if you pay up the fine within 15 days, you get a one third discount, meaning you only have to pay two thirds of the stated fine. If you have committed an offence, you should receive your notification within 3 weeks along with a photograph for posterity. The daily cites some 40,440 road offences occurring in Slovakia just in January.
Are they fining the car or the actual driver here ? Is the Photo of the car reg plate or the face of the driver ???
Human rights laws in EU ….
The right not to self incrimination and the right to remain silent seem to be at issue here ……but will any Slowvak have the guts to challenge a set up Police Court ?
Question: If a driver is stopped at the roadside for one of these offenses does he/she still have to pay the full whack?, or can they claim discount too?
I expect not DC. I mean if a Policeman manages to get off his big, fat, drunken ass to stop you …then there obviously was a cost involved in him actually `doing` something, rather than a stagnate robot, just taking a picture of your car . Personally, I think the stagnant robot will perhaps do more work than the idiot cop, but who am I to comment here ?
The police in the Trnava region do seem to set a higher standard than the rest – not that difficult! The down side of this new technology is that it can’t deal with foriegn registered vehicles. Published figures from the UK indicate that a foriegn vehicle commits an offence every 6 minutes but the tickets have to go in the bin. So, although the scheme may tame some of the local clowns, alien kamikaze drivers will get off scot-free which will no doubt lead to claims of discrimination in the application of the law.