Assessment of the current state of road traffic safety in Ukraine

The article analyses the state of road safety in Ukraine. The author provides statistics on deaths and injuries due to road accidents for 2021-2023 and concludes that under the legal regime of martial law, the issue of road safety has not lost its relevance, as the level of road traffic injuries in Ukraine remains consistently high. Thus, in 2023, the number of road accidents with victims in Ukraine reached the levels before russia's full-scale invasion: in 2023, 23,642 road accidents with fatalities and/or injuries occurred in Ukraine, which is 26.9% more than in 2022. It is noted that in the first year of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, new dangers on the roads were added. The article presents the results of a survey on the state of compliance with traffic rules in Ukraine, in which more than 2 thousand citizens took part. The answers obtained convincingly indicate that the dominant determinant of road accidents is the consciousness, will, and emotions of drivers, whose criminogenic manifestations are facilitated, in particular, by a low culture of behaviour, neglect of compliance with traffic rules, and the lack of perception of the inevitability of legal liability. The author concludes that the ambitious goal set out in the Strategy for Improving Road Safety in Ukraine for the period up to 2024 to reduce the road traffic death rate by at least 30% by 2024, as well as to reduce the severity of road traffic accidents for road users and to reduce socio-economic losses from road traffic injuries will not be achieved. In this context, the author emphasises that achieving the planned goal of reducing the death rate as a result of road accidents is possible only if the level of legal awareness of all road users is increased by introducing a culturological concept into the practice of preventive activities.