Violation of traffic safety rules

Over the past year, 3,617,484 administrative offenses were registered in the Republic of Belarus. Of these, 2,956,701 relate to offenses against traffic safety and transport operation, including violations of rules ensuring safety of movement on railway or urban electric transport. A significant portion of offenses related to railway transport consists of crossing or being on railway tracks in an unauthorized place.

Violations of rules ensuring safety of movement on railway or urban electric transport are regulated by Article 18.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences. According to Part 5 of this article, crossing or being on railway tracks in an unauthorized place entails a fine ranging from 0.2 to two basic units.

Such offenses are typically committed by mushroom pickers, hunters, and residents of settlements located near railway tracks. However, minors, especially teenagers, are particularly prone to such behavior. It is necessary to highlight a number of objective and subjective reasons for this behavior. Objective reasons include the fact that, for example, very often when it is necessary to cross railway tracks, there may simply be no specially equipped crossing nearby. It is also common for children, due to insufficient legal literacy, to simply not know that such actions are prohibited and punishable. They do not understand that a simple crossing of railway tracks can lead to something bad, let alone illegal and life-threatening.

In addition to all of the above, the psychology of a teenager also plays an important role. At this stage of their development, a person is often very critical of what their parents tell them, of societal norms, and of the law. Many of these seem to them to be mere formalities, meaningless and not obligatory to follow. Teenagers often intentionally violate norms and rules to demonstrate their freedom and independence. For offenses related to transport, the fact that in

in adolescence, children, due to a sense of their own adulthood or due to conflicts, run away from home, moving, including along railway tracks.

Thus, there are quite a few reasons for minors to commit this type of offense. Therefore, their prevention requires a comprehensive, balanced approach through joint work of the family, school, and police. In order to form legal literacy and prevent administrative offenses in the field of railway transport safety, it is necessary to inform minors about the duties of pedestrians and familiarize them with information about the responsibility of minors for committing traffic offenses.

Assistant to the Vitebsk Transport Prosecutor
Yanchilenko E.V.