Abstract

Purpose – Lithuanian legislations regulating road traffic procedures indicates, that main purpose of legal regulations is to improve traffic safety requirements on roads in order to protect the life, health and property of road users and other persons, to improve transport and pedestrian traffic conditions (Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Road Safety, 2000). Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Lithuania legislation in the field of road safety management, as well as to ascertain the problems for seeking the goal indicated in legal regulations.

Design/methodology/approach – the research paper is based on qualitative-comparative document analysis method for comparing statistical data, case law decisions, publications and legislation in the field of road traffic offences. The analysis, evaluation and interpretation of case law decisions, as well as claims related to the cases of administrative offences for the violation of road traffic regulations in Lithuania, are taken into account by summarizing research conclusions.

Finding – the legal legislation and its implementation for the road traffic offenses in Lithuania (hereafter – RTO) are goal orientation mechanism. The formally indicated aim of these regulations are noticed to be the purpose of educating people and fulfilling the pursuit of the legislation in reaching the aim to ensure the protection life, health and property of road users and other persons. Thus, investigation and the results of this research pointed out dysfunctional areas of implementation of such regulations as well as reasonable doubt for its purpose, seemingly indicating the pursuit to seek different goal to punish, to show the high number of results of offences, which have been investigated or to gain profit in the process of implementing the requirements of traffic rules, by applying fines, thus education and teaching society is not implemented productively.

Research limitations/implications – to indicate the gaps in the legislations of the requirements of traffic rules, to understand what should be improved to seek the goal of narrowing down such offences, thus, it is inevitable to investigate and point out the indicators, which specifies the different purpose and its implementations for penalties imposed for the violation of road traffic regulation in Lithuania.

Practical implications – the comparative analysis provides a background on further discussions concerning legal ways to apply road traffic regulations by seeking its true purpose.

Originality/Value – there are no recent scientific research carried out in which the legal requirements of offences for the violation of road traffic regulations in Lithuania were analysed. There are limited access of academic insights analysing the issues of the goal of implementing the indicated penalties for such offences and reasonable solutions to reduce the growing numbers of such violations in Lithuania.

Keywords: road traffic offences, penalties, purpose of implementation.

Research type: research paper.

JEL classification: K23, K42.