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Sweeping changes in traffic regulations, which take effect July 1, have drivers looking over their shoulders and police readying their ticket books. But a key question remains: Will Czech streets, roads and highways finally get a little safer?

Road rules and regulations will undergo a dramatic transformation under an amendment to the traffic law, which introduces a new 12-point scale for tracking offenses, increases the authority of traffic police and lays down more severe financial penalties for reckless drivers.

But a public debate is raging as to whether the new regulations are likely to improve the chaotic conditions on roads or if they will simply place a bureaucratic noose around the necks of honest drivers.

Some experts argue that the new regulations do nothing to eradicate bribes to traffic cops and will only increase their amounts. "With the new law, the police not only get new powers, but also an open drivers' wallet," says Igor Sirota, editor-in-chief of Autohit magazine. "Now the value of bribes will increase enormously."

The centralized computer system that will track driver points has also been questioned. Point-keeping will be transferred from the police to the municipalities and town halls, which complain they have neither the qualified personnel nor the technology to cope with the work. Many of these institutions around the country claim the Transportation Ministry should have supplied the system long ago.

"We know about some of the problems, but we'll provide the computers, install the software and start the system by the end of June," Marcela Žižková, spokeswoman for the Transportation Ministry, told the press. "We'll make it," she added.

After July 1, a driver gets a specific point penalty for each offense, together with a financial levy. The highest deduction for a single offense is seven points for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or refusal to undergo an alcohol-detection test. The financial penalty in this case is 25,000–50,000 Kč ($1,100–2,200).

Other penalties include five points for driving through a red light, four for not granting right of way to a pedestrian at a crossing, and two points for not buckling up.

When a driver's penalty points add up to 12, their license is confiscated for one year. To regain the license, the punished driver must complete and pay for a driving course the same way a new applicant does.

The law also includes some positive reinforcement provisions: For every year without an offense, four points are deleted from the driver's record. Three years of "good behavior" nullify the record, giving the driver a clean sleet.

"I feel the new law has a number of positive elements," says Ondřej Horázný, chairman of the Association of Driving Schools in the Czech Republic. "There is the duty to have the headlights on throughout the year, obligations toward pedestrians, transport of children in child safety seats and more."

Some other new regulations have not won such praise — in fact, they're predicted to cause nightmares for the everyday decent driver. One such rule is the zero tolerance toward speeding. The law does not differentiate and treats those exceeding the speed limit by 1 kilometer per hour or 20 will constitute breaking the law and warrant a heavy fine.

"This can have a negative effect on decent drivers," says Horázný, adding, "they will, as a result, pay more attention to their speedometer and less to traffic ahead of them. Hence the risk of hitting the car in front of you will increase."

One certainty is that the first months of the law will cause confusion in that no one, including the police, seems to know what to expect. The Transportation Ministry simply announced that the new law is part of an effort to dramatically decrease road accidents and fatalities by the year 2010.

Sirota agrees that Czechs are in desperate need of safer roads, but adds, "whether we can reach that through only repression, I am not sure."

Czech roads are widely regarded to be the least safe in Europe. According to police statistics, there were more than 199,000 traffic accidents in 2005, causing 1,127 fatalities.

By comparison, the number of traffic deaths in the United Kingdom in 2004 was 3,221 people, a number about three times higher, while that country is six times more populous than the Czech Republic. In Sweden, a country of 9.1 million, or slightly less populous than the Czech Republic, 440 people died on the roads in 2005.

Until the statistics are in for the second half of 2006, says Horázný, the new law's effectiveness won't be clear. But Zdeněk Bambas, director of the national Traffic Police, is convinced that drivers do not face the risk of harassment. Instead, as he confidently told Czech Television, "It is enough to abide by the law."