Creating a safe environment for every Ukrainian is a priority for the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, - Tetiana Kovalchuk
The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs spoke about this today, June 24, during the forum “Ukraine 30: “Life-loving Ukraine”, taking part in the session “Increasing life expectancy as a state strategy”.
According to Tetiana Kovalchuk, among the main areas of danger for Ukrainians in the Ministry of Internal Affairs there are: road accidents, the problem of drug addiction and child mortality due to accidents, suicides due to violence.
So, in the past year alone, almost 32 thousand people were injured on the roads, and more than 3.5 thousand citizens - drivers, passengers and pedestrians - died. The main risk factors for committing an accident with serious consequences are exceeding the permissible speed of movement by drivers, their consumption of alcoholic beverages while driving and neglecting both drivers and passengers, such an elementary measure as the use of seat bags.
“To improve the situation with accidents on the roads, we are introducing a system for fixing violations of traffic rules in automatic mode. Already 130 complexes for autofixation of traffic violations have been installed, and by the end of the year about 400 are planned. And we have good results: compared to last year, the number of fatal accidents decreased by 17%, the number of accidents with injuries - by 14%. That is, 133 fewer people died and 1,010 people were less injured. We expect that increased responsibility for drunk driving will affect the reduction of road deaths by 10-15%,” the deputy minister said.
Equally important is the preventive work of law enforcement officers in the fight against child mortality.
“Children are the most vulnerable category of society. This year, more than 1,740 criminal offenses were committed against children, of which 1998 children were affected. Currently, the National Police has implemented constant monitoring of content on the network, in particular research of all forums. We cooperate with the largest social networks. Round-the-clock exchange of information between various NPU units is provided in order to completely eliminate the so-called “death groups”. Since the beginning of 2021, the Department of Cyberpolice has blocked more than 60 thematic communities that promoted the cult of violence and mortality among children,” said Tatiana Kovalchuk.
She also stressed that in recent years, unfortunately, another problem has become global — the problem of drug addiction. After all, according to statistics, the number of facts of drug sales has increased 4 times. Of the total number of registered drug sales, every 7 — was carried out via the Internet. Thanks to the chat bot “Stop Drugs” in the Telegram messenger, more than 2 thousand email addresses are blocked.
“For the Ministry of the Interior, countering these problems is the step that brings us closer to ensuring that the nation lives long and is healthy. The safety factor here plays a key role. Therefore, work in this direction is a priority for us,” summed up Tetiana Kovalchuk.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
Photo by Andriy Novitsky
