Within the framework of the Lifesaver project, the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) organizes seminars, conferences and international exchanges of police officers. In the past month four Romanian police officers visited Slovenia. On October 19, 2010, they watched Slovenian traffic police controlling cargo vehicles on the Novo Mesto - Ljubljana motorway.
On the Dob tolling station, located on the Novo Mesto - Ljubljana motorway they were able to take part in cargo vehicle controls by checking technical roadworthiness, driving time and potential irregularities regarding tachographs and cargo fixation.
When a Slovenian police officer told a truck driver to drive onto the weighting machine, all four foreign officers were paying close attention. In Romania, they are not familiar with such machines.
The Romanian police officer Stefan Radu took the opportunity to tell the members of the press/journalists, who were interested what foreign officers were doing on our roads, that he was very impressed by the work of his Slovenian colleagues: "I can see that other institutions are helping with cargo vehicle controls. In my country we are inspecting diagrams and tachographs but not the weight of the vehicles. But you also measure whether the trucks are overloaded."
He also added that during their visit to Slovenia, they had learned how to control traffic even better and prevent accidents. "In Romania, we do not have so many motorways, they are actually still under construction, but unfortunately we have many victims of road accidents and also some problems in terms of legislation. Slovenian laws are stricter than ours. Our Slovenian colleagues are also very kind," he added.
Romanian police officers are cooperating as observers in procedures of their Slovenian colleagues
The host country presented them in great detail with the work of Specialized Traffic Control Unit and one of the traffic police stations as well as the used equipment: speedometer, breathalyzers etc.
At the end of the working day, Slovenian police officer Robi Javoršek, assistant head of the Specialized Traffic Control Unit said that the guests had complimented Slovenian roads in particular our motorway network that they had had the opportunity to see. According to his words, such cooperation is intended mainly to exchange experience and good practices and information about the equipment and the method of operating which is more than welcome.
In addition to the work of traffic police officers, they saw the work of Police Stations for Compensatory Measures that are dealing with border issues and foreigners inside the country's territory.
Similarly as the Romanian police officers came to Slovenia as a part of the exchange, Slovenia is also sending its officers for foreign exchange. This year they have already been to Germany, Great Britain and Italy, and currently six of them are participating in an exchange in the Netherlands.
Today, TISPOL is the leading organization that connects all traffic police forces within the European Union. Slovenia is participating in the organization since its establishment. We have cooperated in establishing the organizational structure and first major activities, that is why today we are fully participating in TISPOL projects and policy making. For the Slovenian police, the connections between European traffic police forces is an endless source of information and good solutions in the area in which police ensures the road traffic safety.
