Author name:
جعفر عبد الرضا عبد الخالق
Supervisor name:
عماد فاضل ركاب المالكي
Abstract:
Traffic crime is one of the crimes that affect people's lives, safety, and properties. The results of such crimes that is; death, injuries, and damage, according to statistics, are more influential than epidemics, in addition to the traffic jam. This study sheds light on the flaws and defects of the applied Iraqi Law of Traffic No. 68, 4002, as to conviction, prevention, and punishment. This research paper is divided into three chapters. The first one deals with its concept, the second deals with symbols of traffic crimes. While, the third one deals with the punishment of the crime, its aggravated circumstances, and its mitigated excuses. One of the results of the first chapter is that the Iraqi legislator does not secure the conditions of getting a driving license; that is, drugs - free test confirmed with medical reports, and age - restricted validity of the license. These conditions are suggested to the Iraqi legislator. The second and the third chapters deal with five crimes as to their sanctions, conditions, and sedative excuses. The study concludes that the Iraqi legislation of sanctions lakes the following : - The Iraqi legislator does not criminate driving with invalid license (clause 1, Section41), yet he renders it as a misdemeanor (clause H - 00), Appendix (A) : that deals with driving law, vehicles, fees of registering vehicles, fines of traffic violation, by stating " driving and registering license cannot be renewed". The study suggested this act is to be dealt with according to (section 41) of the applied Iraqi Law of Traffic, for it is a serious crime equals those included within this section. The Iraqi legislator sets short - term sanction to such misdemeanors. Courts of law apply those sanctions with suspension to save people involved in these crimes from the bad effects, who are mostly teenagers with clean record. Accordingly, criminals get away with it, for there is no proper sanction for such a crime. It is suggested that driving with invalid license should be criminated according to theIraqi law along with a fine that should be alternative to jail, and the judiciary estimates the proper sanction. - As to Drunk Driving or Drug Driving, the Iraqi legislator does not explain the phrase "under the influence of drinks or drugs" which mislead judges, make criminals get away with their crimes, and result in misinterpretation in verdicts. The study suggested altering the phrase (section 44) to mean : "when the driver is caught having drinks or drugs, he is to be criminated pursuant to the law within this section". When a crime is committed for the second time within a year, the Iraqi legislator enacts aggravated sanction. Yet, if the crime is committed for the second time within more than one year, sanction is different. It is suggested that differentiation in forcing sanctions as to committing the crime for the first or second time should be omitted because the motive is present in either case. - In section (40) which deals with harming people or their properties because reckless driving, the Iraqi legislator has not forced the appropriate sanctions. He holds only the driver to be responsible for the crime - without mentioning the pedestrian and passengers - and when he is in the act of driving. So, the indirect doer of the crime is not hold responsible. As to the sanction, the Iraqi legislator states that extreme conditions must be present; that is, stupidity and recklessness, and those are examples of improper legislations which should not be enforced. Also, pursuant to Iraqi law, being a fugitive in such cases is not considered aggravating act, while it is the case when the crime involves causing death. The study suggested altering (section40) in order to eliminate inappropriate sanctions. - In (section 42), the Iraqi legislator has missed forcing the proper sanctions again as it is the case in (section 40). The sanction of this crime is imprisonment, which means : it is considered a felony. When reviewing the verdicts, it is noticed that those legislations are not applied and it is replaced with fine. It means that these sanctions are not proper for the given crime, so it is recommended that prison sanction is replaced with jail. - In (section 48), there are misinterpretation of the Arabic content. The right interpretation of the section 48 is that the Iraqi legislator does not provide the coppers with protection and limits it to police officers in duty. The case is the same in aggravating conditions. The study suggested protection to be provided for both police officers and coppers while in duty or because of executing it.
