The new road traffic rules introduce higher penalties for offences that have been proven to cause the worst traffic accidents - drunk driving, speeding, and wrong-way driving - and on the other hand reduces fines for the offences that do not affect road safety substantially.

While sticking to the regime tolerating 0.05% of blood alcohol content for experienced drivers and 0.00% for novices, the new provisions, for instance, lower the threshold for loss of licence from 0.15% to 0.11% and increase the fine in such cases from EUR 800 to EUR 1,200. The lowest fine for drunk driving is doubled to EUR 300.

The fine for exceeding the speed limit in urban areas by between 10 km/h and 20 km/h is increasing from EUR 250 to EUR 300, while similar hikes are envisaged for motorways and expressways.

Serious speeding in urban zones, by more than 50 km/h, will be fined with EUR 1,200, which is EUR 200 more than so far and involves immediate loss of licence.

A substantial correction is being made when it comes to fines for wrong-way driving, where the fine is increasing from EUR 300 to EUR 1,200 and immediate loss of licence.

More caution will also be necessary with respect to traffic lights, with the fine for driving though a yellow light increasing from EUR 120 to EUR 200 and for a red light from EUR 200 to EUR 300.

The cases where fines are being lowered are few and mostly concern failure to follow police instructions and signalisation.

Meanwhile, the drivers act tightens the belt for offenders who have been stripped off their driving licence, introducing a mandatory health check before trying to obtain a new one, an additional safe driving training programme and a rehabilitation programme.

It further increases the standards for driving instructors and furthers the promotion of road safety programmes in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.

Furthermore, the act halves the theoretical training in driving schools to an average of 20 hours of driving and gives drivers a chance to erase their penalty points by taking a safe driving or a rehabilitation programme.

The roads act replaces and updates the current public roads act and is interesting for the amendment that banns advertisement screens on the side of public roads. The existing screens will need to be replaced within six months.

The motor vehicles act meanwhile gives the legal basis for a thorough regulation of the technical requirements for all vehicles on roads, including tractors at their work on the fields or in forests.