News analysis: Lithuania struggles with war on road after killing of patrolling police

Lithuanian has been deeply touched by the news on last Friday morning reporting that a drunk truck driver killed a young police officer on her duty, though it could have been one of those many meaningless deaths on Lithuanian roads vanishing from local media headlines within an hour.

Ligita Baniulyte, a 20-year old police officer from Radviliskis county police, Northern Lithuania, and her colleagues were on a patrolling raid last Friday, stopping cars and checking drivers' licenses.

At around 2:30 AM, Baniulyte was just to return the license and wish a safe journey to one of the stopped drivers, when a passing truck hit his car and the police officer standing by.

"She was giving back the documents, said everything is fine, wishing a good journey. Suddenly she disappeared, and we found ourselves ten meters away crashed into a street light," the witness driver told local journalists.

The truck didn't stop and dragged the officer for about a kilometer. After the police had stopped the truck, they soon realized the driver was drunk. Alcohol tester showed his blood alcohol concentration exceeded 0.2 percent.

It's been viewed as a surprise there were no more human casualties.

It's been a month since Baniulyte started her career as a police officer, a very uncommon choice for a young person to devote herself to a high-risk service and poor reward of around 500 euros a month.

The death has drawn attention from the highest officials.

"There is nothing more painful, when a young person who has just begun his life journey dies because of a drunk driver," said Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuanian president, expressing her condolences.

"This short, though meaningful, officer's life is the best example, that Lithuania's young generation serves their country and people with sincerity and sacrifice," Algirdas Butkevicius, the prime minister, responded in his condolences.

Baniulyte became the 32nd police officer killed while on their duty during Lithuania's 25 years of independency, according to Linas Pernavas, the Police Commissioner General.

He himself came to meet the truck driver, who has been detained for 3 months, and look him in the eye.

PAINFUL REMINDER

"She truly believed she can change the situation," Saulius Skvernelis, the interior minister, told local media.

The police officer ought to become a warrior in an undeclared war on Lithuanian roads, a title describing almost a decade of continuing deadly accidents in Lithuanian roads and failed efforts to increase the safety.

Recent tragedy has brought back war on the roads to the headlines.

"This heartbreaking accident has obliged all of us, the society as well as the officers, to unite even more and jointly stop the unjustifiable war on the roads," urged Lithuanian president.

Statistics show war on the roads is not a sounding title invented by Lithuanian media. This term emerged in mid 2000s, when Lithuania had found itself among the worst countries in terms of road fatalities.

In 2001, with 202 road deaths per million residents Lithuania had among the European countries the second highest road fatality rate, following Latvia with 236 deaths. It was almost twice the average of European Union, according to CARE, the EU road accidents database.

Since then the EU has managed to reduce the fatality rate from 113 to 51 in 2014. Lithuania has seen its road fatality rate decreasing to 90 but still almost twice the average rate. According to the European Commission, Lithuania remains among four member states having the highest road fatality rates in the EU. The rate was 90 in Bulgaria, 91 in Romania and 105 in Latvia in 2014.

Lithuania was the fourth among the countries with highest share of pedestrian deaths. Pedestrians' deaths amounted to 34 percent of all road fatalities in Lithuanian roads in 2014, while the EU average was 22 percent, according to the EC.

Though, 2015 look promising in the frontline of road wars, since 134 people have been killed on the roads since the start of the year, or 19.2 percent less than during the same period last year, according to Lithuanian police.

CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

Alcohol consumption has much to do with road fatalities in Lithuania. According to Lithuania's police, drunken drivers have caused 130 road accidents so far this year, compared to 221 for the whole 2014 and 191 in 2013.

The country's police have already fined 5,000 drunk drivers this year. Lithuanians continue to drive under influence of alcohol, although the lawmakers have taken additional measures to punish drunken drivers in recent years.

As of 2015, there's zero tolerance for blood alcohol concentration for those driving taxi, truck, motorcycle as well as beginner drivers. For others legal blood alcohol concentration cannot exceed 0.04 percent.

However, Lithuanian lawmakers consider imposing zero tolerance for all drivers following practices taken in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, since many of drunk drivers in Lithuania argue they have only drunk a bit.

It's been almost two years since those driving under influence of alcohol and drugs risk losing their car and driving license for at least a year.

But the recent tragedy has led officials thinking of even more tightening of the rule. Lithuanian interior minister said drunk drivers who have caused deadly accidents, shouldn't be allowed to drive for the rest of their life.

"There should be real sanctions stipulated in the criminal law, the imprisonment should be inflicted," Saulius Skvernelis told BNS news agency.

"Their ability to finish prison term earlier should attract scrutiny," he added.

Meanwhile, the country's police are to change the practices of stopping cars on the roads to avoid deadly accidents.

"We don't say we will stop less, we will use other measures, cameras," Pernavas said in a special press conference following the accident.

If it's not drunk driving then speeding comes into play. It's a common practice to exceed the speed limit by 10 to 20 kilometers per hour on Lithuanian roads. According to the law, drivers speeding up to 10 kilometers receive a warning and avoid being fined.

On 1 September, at the start of the new school year, Lithuanian Road Police Service imposed for one week a zero tolerance policy for speeding. In just first day speed surveillance cameras recorded 18,000 speed limit violations throughout the country, according to the Service.

Speeding up to 10 kilometers per hour accounted to around 70 percent of speed limit violations.

There are more than 1.5 million drivers in the small Baltic State with a population of fewer than 3 million. Endit