A report from the Transportation Activities Monitoring Center (Cemat), carried out in 2018, revealed that in 653 municipalities of the country, in which 8.6 million people lived, there is no kind of control over the violation of traffic regulations, despite the fact that up to that time there had been 2.1 million registered vehicles.
This situation, which is maintained today, allows drivers and motorcyclists to drive without problems after having ingested liquor, to drive in the wrong way, without mechanical technical inspection or mandatory accident insurance, may be in force, run red lights, or not wear a helmet, among other infractions, because there is no one who controls or puts order in the streets.
Another piece of information from that report that is not minor is that in those municipalities, which are 58 percent of the country’s municipal capitals, 856 people died in their streets (13 percent of the national total) in traffic accidents in 2018.
For these and other reasons, the national government had the National Police officers remain empowered to impose subpoenas in municipalities that do not have a transit operating body, for behaviors that violate regulations that threaten road safety, with special emphasis on offenses such as driving without compulsory accident insurance.
National Government it happened that the uniformed of the National Police would be empowered.
Hector Fabio Zamora / EL TIEMPO
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Without prejudice to the powers that correspond to the traffic authorities, the National Police will contribute to the efforts for the protection
This is enshrined in article 26 «Protection of life and personal integrity» of the National Development Plan that was filed last Monday for discussion and approval in the Congress of the Republic.
In section III of the PND ‘Coordination of vital territory planning instruments’, said article expressly states: «Without prejudice to the powers that correspond to the traffic authorities, the National Police will contribute to the efforts for the protection of life and the personal structure of the traffic actors and for this purpose, through personnel assigned to the National Headquarters of the Police Service, will have the competence to detect infractions and impose subpoena orders in relation to conducts with a direct impact on security. traffic and, especially, circulation without Compulsory Traffic Accident Insurance, Soat, committed on departmental roads and in municipalities where, according to the certification issued by the Superintendence of Transportation, there are no or will not be covered operational bodies of control of the transit agency”.
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In addition to the police officers who also ensure security in those municipalities, there will be photo detection equipment for violations, a task that will remain a responsibility of the National Road Safety Agency.
The contravention process, according to this article of the PND, will be in charge of «the traffic authority of the jurisdiction where the offense was committed, with the support of the departmental traffic agencies, when appropriate.»
What will happen to the collection of fines? The bill provides that 50 percent of the fines imposed will be the property of the Nation, «without prejudice to the provisions of the National Traffic Code.»
This change is important, because in accordance with this Code, these resources are allocated to the execution of transit plans, transport and mobility, education, provision of equipment, fuel, road safety, operation and road infrastructure of the public passenger transport service. , non-motorized transport and management of the recovery system for fines. A part of these resources are for transit agencies and another corresponds to the Colombian Federation of Municipalities.
urban tolls
The bill by which the National Development Plan 2022-2026 ‘Colombia world power of life’ is expanded, includes various sources of financing for public transport systems, tied to the use of private vehicles.
In this sense, municipalities and departments are empowered to establish supplementary resources from contributions for parking or street parking services. The Municipal Councils will be responsible for «defining the elements of the tax and the system and method to define the costs, and those responsible for the collection, declaration and consignment of the resources collected, so that the tax is adjusted to local conditions».
And it is established that users should be charged as recommended by technical studies, for which the vulnerabilities of road accidents should be considered and take into account the promotion of zero-emission vehicles.
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The PND would also give free rein to what was known at the time as urban tolls. For this, cities that have previously adopted the Sustainable and Safe Mobility Plan may establish differential public prices for access to some areas to minimize congestion.
The collection, given the project, may be made through Intelligent Transportation Systems, gates or vehicle electronic collection services —REV— or others. And the price will be set taking into account the type of road or area; the specified months, days or hours of use; and the type of vehicle service, the number of passengers or the type of vehicle.
In addition, it is provided that municipalities and departments may allocate up to 60 percent of the collection for traffic fines for the operation of their mass and collective public transport systems or non-motorized transport.
The National Development Plan is the Government’s road map until the year 2026, it was filed last Monday and must be approved in four debates in this first semester. And on paper, although there are controversial proposals that will generate a lot of noise, they will have no problems passing through Congress. But we must not forget that the PNDs are the subject of lawsuits, those promoted by Juan Manuel Santos in his two terms had 30 lawsuits, while that of Iván Duque has the record with 60.
The National Development Plan is the Government’s road map until the year 2026.
Why now can they impose a ‘fotofine’ on him?
The Secretary of Mobility, Deyanira Ávila, revealed in recent days in an interview with this newspaper that during the year 2022, 636,979 subpoenas were imposed in Bogotá through the so-called ‘life-saving’ cameras. Of these, she said, about 43,000 were challenged, of which more than 42,000 were exonerated.
But since September 2022, the situation changed when ruling C-321 of the Constitutional Court was known, in response to a lawsuit against article 10 of Law 2161 of 2021, which states that vehicle owners «must ensure» that vehicles of his property circulate: “a. Having acquired the obligatory traffic accident insurance; b. Having carried out the technical-mechanical review within the terms provided by law; C. By places and times that are allowed; d. Without exceeding the speed limits allowed; my. Respecting the red traffic light.
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The owner may be penalized when, through
a process, it is proven that, in a culpable manner, he incurred in the infractions
The word ‘watch’ is key to understanding the situation. In the ruling, the Court concluded that imposing an obligation on the owner to «ensure» that the vehicle he owns circulates in compliance with each of the literals of article 10, and providing for the possibility that he be penalized within a process contraventional administrative when that obligation is breached, «is in accordance with the principle of personal responsibility and the right to the presumption of innocence.»
But in relation to literals c, d and e of article 10 «the owner may be penalized when, within the penalizing administrative process, it is proven that, in a guilty manner, he incurred in the traffic offenses analyzed.»
The PND would also give free rein to what was known at the time as urban tolls.
Mauricio Moreno. TIME
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The Court said that the norm was in accordance with the right to the presumption of innocence, because the sanction to the owner «cannot be imposed automatically and for the sole fact that a subpoena had been issued», but rather, his responsibility must be proven and establish themselves within a contraventional administrative process.
E says, finally, «that the provision was found in accordance with the principle of personal responsibility because the cause of the possible sanction is an omission attributable to the owner of the vehicle, which is that he fails to comply, culpably, with the obligation to ensure that the vehicle of his property circulates according to the conditions provided in literals a, b, c, d, and e”.
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