Parliamentarians will begin considering a proposal by the Democratic Party "For Lithuania" to oblige drivers involved in an accident to clear the roadway as soon as possible if there is an agreement on who is at fault for the accident.
102 members of the Seimas voted in favor of such amendments to the Road Traffic Safety Law after it was submitted this week, nine parliamentarians abstained, and this issue is intended to be discussed at the end of April.
According to the submitted draft, when a traffic accident causes a traffic jam and if no one was killed or injured during the accident, and the participants involved in the traffic accident agree on the circumstances and do not call the police, they must record the scene of the traffic accident with photographs or video recordings and remove vehicles from the section of the road where the traffic jam occurs as soon as possible.
After pulling over vehicles, participants in a traffic accident should comply with the Road Traffic Regulations (KET) fill out a traffic accident declaration in accordance with the established procedure.
"In many European countries, there is a certain logic built into the laws that if (…) a car is slightly damaged, no harm has been done to individuals, and only minimal damage to the car, there is an obligation to tow the car if there is a traffic jam and to formalize the incident, if the participants agree, by driving somewhere to a separate parking lot conveniently so as not to disrupt traffic," said Democrat Tomas Tomilinas, presenting the project from the Seimas rostrum.
"Surely, the damage to one car in no way justifies the fact that the entire city is late for work, not to mention the cost of fuel, time, nerves, and so on," he added.
The project also proposes that on certain sections of the road that are filmed by cameras and marked with special signs, even if there is a disagreement about the culprit, cars should be forced to pull over and then wait for the arriving police.
"For example, a (traffic accident – BNS) occurs on a very busy stretch of road, Geležinio Vilko Street in Vilnius is the most ideal example, that road from Kaunas, probably more than one of you has to stand in traffic jams there when those technical accidents happen," said T. Tomilinas.
According to the current rules, if a person was not killed or injured in a traffic accident, an agreement is reached regarding the circumstances, and no charges are filed. police, then the participants in the traffic accident must draw a diagram of the incident in the declaration, describe its circumstances and have all participants in the incident sign it.
Author Vilmantas Venckūnas
