Proposition 53K1792

Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 16 mars 1968 relative à la police de la circulation routière en vue de classer comme infraction du deuxième degré les comportements en matière d'immatriculation permettant de se soustraire aux poursuites.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Hendrik Bogaert, Leen Dierick, Nahima Lanjri, Nathalie Muylle, Jef Van den Bergh, Liesbeth Van der Auwera, Stefaan Vercamer

Submission date

Oct. 12, 2011

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

fine traffic offence vehicle registration highway code road safety traffic regulations road traffic

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

May 16, 2013 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Isabelle Emmery, rapporteur, refers to her written report.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Secretary of State, colleagues, this morning I was at the Flemish Congress on Traffic Safety that took place in Antwerp under the motto “Wake-up call 2020: the road to more road safety”. At that congress, promising figures were proposed regarding the number of road traffic casualties in 2012. Following the stagnation in 2011, there is again significant progress in road safety.

However, the result should not make us sleep. After all, traffic statistics remain dramatic and there was hardly any attention to it. In this evolution, we must not give up.

In November, I already made a wake-up call here for more road safety and that we must continue to repeat, until boredom if it should. The number of road traffic casualties in our country has to decline drastically. After all, despite the positive developments in 2012, our country remains at the tail of the European peloton in terms of road safety. We are in a sad twentieth place. Every day, two more people die in our traffic.

Will we resolve this with the present proposal? No, of course not; it is just an element. It is one of the many measures in our so-called Kick-Assplan. With that plan, we target three types of road offenders, who believe that traffic rules do not apply to them, who redirect the roads to a dangerous playground and who see other road users merely as annoying obstacles on their way. We are talking about the alcohol recidivists, the speed demons and the punishment evaders.

In our plan, we have included a series of twelve legislative initiatives to address these groups more stringently. Many of these legislative initiatives have now become law, such as the law on the alcohol lock, the extension of the repeat periods and the stricter recidive regime for drivers who, despite a driving ban, continue to drive.

The present bill also fits into the Kick-Assplan. It reinforces the approach of drivers who deliberately try to escape their punishment, by making it impossible to identify their vehicle. The vicious drivers drive an unregistered vehicle, they damage the readability of the number plate, they do not send the number plate back in time, they drive with a wrong or no reproduction plate, they drive with a covered number plate, and so on. Thus, it becomes impossible for the police to identify the vehicle in the event of an infringement and thus the involved drivers try to escape certain infringements.

At present, the impossibility of identification is only a violation of the first degree. With the present proposal, we double the punishment by making it a second-degree offence. In addition, the police judge will be given the opportunity to impose an expiration of the right to send.

Although these violations do not directly endanger the safety of persons, we still believe that a heavier punishment is appropriate. Moreover, it is extremely necessary. After all, the identification of the infringer is a key element in the entire enforcement policy. For example, the amount of the current fine is much lower than a fine for a serious breach of speed. We should not tolerate the conscious evasion of control possibilities and, in conjunction with this, the conscious creation of danger in traffic. We must be able to deal with this more rigorously.

We therefore hope that this proposal, as in the committee, will be able to count on a vast majority of this Chamber. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Infrastructure Committee for the constructive cooperation.

Mr. Van den Bergh has already said it. We should not be very proud of road safety in this country. However, there is a slight improvement. Following last year’s stagnation, a slight improvement is noticeable this year. In the European context, however, we are still backward. Belgium is not doing well in terms of road safety. The Secretary of State, Mr. Wathelet, has also acknowledged this several times. Belgium is a bad pupil in Europe, especially in terms of the number of deaths in our traffic.

Mr Van den Bergh has already given a number of figures. I would like to add one that is very speaking, namely the number of deaths per million inhabitants per country. These are figures from 2011, so we could deduct something from them. However, if the percentage is deducted, it still remains very speaking. The number of deaths per million inhabitants for Germany is 49, for France 61, for the Netherlands 33 and for Belgium 77. I think this figure is very clear.

Colleagues, a good traffic policy also means that we must have a good enforcement policy. Small measures, such as those proposed here, can ⁇ contribute to that. It is indeed true that some drivers want to escape enforcement and actually punishment by making the identification of their vehicle via the number plate completely impossible. They do this very consciously. At present, this is a first-degree infringement, which means that it is a very low penalty, an immediate collection of 50 euros and no possibility of aggravation when repeated, no possibility of imposing a driving ban.

This proposal aims to address this by making it a second-degree infringement. This will result in an immediate collection of 100 euros. In addition, the judge may decline the right to send. This is an effective signal that this is a serious violation.

Colleagues, during the hearings it was clear that both the Attorney General and the police judges were very enthusiastic about this proposal. They also notice that a lot of people escape persecution because of this fact, especially because one cannot identify the number plate. In serious traffic violations and speed violations, these persons are not prosecuted because the number plate cannot be identified. In addition, the penalty for rendering the number plate unidentifiable is very light.