Legal issues Related to Administrative and Treasury Measures to Prevent Repeated Traffic Offenses

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the problem of traffic violations. Determination of penalties and law enforcement procedures for punishing traffic offenders by adopting administrative and fiscal measures to prevent repeat traffic offenses. The research methodology was divided into three parts. The first part was to study documents in both Thai and foreign languages from textbooks, articles, and related research in order to study the basic concepts of defining offenses and penalties and to find administrative and fiscal measures to prevent repeated traffic offenses. The second part was an in-depth interview consisting of key informants from traffic officers, scholars from Department of Transport, scholar specialized in traffic law, judges, and attorneys. The third part was to collect opinions from the public and traffic police officers in order to support the  analysis of data from various sources of documents to improve the process of traffic law enforcement effectively and to prevent repeated traffic offenses.

         The results were as follows: 1. When legal provisions are inconsistent with current circumstances in the society, the issue of stopping and parking in the driveway should be prohibited  except in zones designated by local authorities as stops and parking spots, but not in  driveways. In addition, traffic legislation should stipulate the driver’s action with his or her intention towards other drivers in the Land Traffic Act B.E. 2522 to regulate the use of roads in accordance with the intent of traffic law. As for the issue of imposing fines to have a deterrent or intimidation effect, the penalty rates should be reviewed every five years. Moreover, penalty rates for reckless acts should be  increased obviously according to the level of harm that reckless drivers might cause when using  the roads for preventive effect. 2. The administrative measures for public order should be implemented. The driver’s behaviors points should be reviewed and specified in the law for the consideration of renewal the license or request for higher type of license. The driving points can be used to adjust the training. For example, the authorities might use special training for drivers who have been cut the points so that they can gain their points back.   3. The fiscal measures should be implemented to prevent repetitive offenses by supporting traffic law enforcement. The measures should focus on finding traffic offences and issuing tickets with equipment, and allocate budgets for appropriate measures to solve the problems by amending Land Traffic Act B.E. 2522 article 146 so that Royal Thai Police that collects fines from traffic violation and gains other incomes from law enforcement can put the money in the fund that was founded as specified in Land Traffic Act B.E. 2522 with the objectives to enforce the law and support procedures of collecting fines so the authorities have sufficient driven budgets.