The police wanted to punish him for avoiding the car before crossing. It didn’t go their way

Avoiding a car stopped in front of a pedestrian crossing in the next lane is one of the biggest traffic mistakes. However, unreasonable attempts to punish anyone who avoids such a car while standing in a traffic queue will fail in court, because the laws are clear on this issue.

A photo of an interesting letter with a court decision detailing the current situation appeared on the STOP CHAM fan page. It shows that the police in Katowice are hunting drivers inside in the area of Wolności Square and certainly many drivers fell for it, without fully knowing the rules. He accepted the ticket, paid, the police are happy, the driver is angry, no one complains. However, there was an accused of committing a crime, Marek Jarocki, who did not accept the order and the case went to court.

From the description, it looks like an attempt to punish for passing a car stopped in front of a pedestrian crossing.

The police said that when Mr. Marek had already crossed the bridge, a pedestrian entered it. The problem, however, was that the car he passed was not there to let him pass. And only then you should not avoid the car stopped in front of the lanes – the law says directly in Article 86b of the Criminal Code:

Who on a public road, in a residential or traffic area, driving past a car going in the same direction, but stopped to give way to a pedestrian, will be fined not less than PLN 1,500.

Therefore, there must be a situation where the vehicle being avoided is deliberately stopped to avoid the pedestrian. There is no ban on passing a car that is just stopped in traffic in front of a pedestrian crossing. That is, there is a risk that a pedestrian will find between cars standing in a traffic jam and will want to continue on the next lane – then it is necessary to stop and let him pass, because he is already in the lanes. However, if we see that no one is walking, and the cars in the next lane are just standing, because there is a traffic jam – you can drive, you don’t have to stop. Also important, there is no ban on passing a car that has stopped to make way for someone to enter the bike crossing on a personal transport device (I’m just adding this as a curiosity).

The police did not have proof of passage before crossing, or they were not ready to get it

The suspect did not accept the order, and the case went to court. The police did not provide any evidence, apart from the testimony of the suspect, who pleaded not guilty and defended himself that no crime had been committed. Therefore, the court did not initiate a trial in this case and all the efforts of the police went to the dog house. The absurdity is compounded by the fact that the alleged offense took place under the windows of the court, which dismissed the case for lack of evidence. The police are doing at least strange, push people this kind of mistakes, and completely ignore others, visible to the eyes. For any attempt to ticket someone without reason, the police must pay the ticket they sought to enforce.

Mr. Marek Jarocki is wrong about one thing

He claims that in Poland there is no excessive maneuvering on roads with more than one lane in each direction. This is of course not true. Overtaking is, according to the Road Traffic Law, “passing (passing) close to a vehicle or a traffic participant moving in the same direction” – the definition comes from Article 2. Therefore, overtaking is absolutely possible on every multi-lane road, It is enough that we pass it more slowly than a moving car traveling in the same direction. But yes, yes, if one searches, one will find that the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic means:

Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 9 of this article, the operation of vehicles in one lane at a faster speed than in another lane shall not be considered excessive for the purposes of this article;

However, this does not change anything about the validity of the Road Traffic Act and the Convention is no better than that. Similarly, nothing has changed about dodging a car stopped in front of a crossing – if the purpose of the stop is to let pedestrians cross, the car must be avoided. However, if the stop was due to traffic conditions, eg traffic jams, queues at red lights – nothing prohibits it, and the police, like the police, stretch the rules to punish you more.

(in a situation like this, I would stop anyway and make sure no one is coming, because it’s easy to cut yourself)