TASHKENT

By the Tribune Staff 

The number of cars in Uzbekistan leapt several times in the last decade, putting the country’s relatively limited road infrastructure under huge pressure.

Constant traffic jams have encouraged drivers to ignore red lights, speed, weave in and out of lanes, and in general ignore any sense of decorum. Frustration, especially during typical summer days of +40C, has turned to road rage.

This, along with the fact that many drivers in earlier years simply bought their driver’s licence with special “fees” and no training – meaning a lack of basic skills.

PAID “ROAD SPOOKS”

Faced with spiking traffic fatalities and accidents,  the government is determined to rein in wild driving and the resulting carnage.

A total of 1,915 people were killed, and 6,700 injured in almost 8,600 motor accidents in the Central Asian nation in 2019, according to authorities.

The sprawling country is still installing the monitoring cameras common in much of the rest of the world. This takes time and money.

The government has also employed drones to try to crack down on out-of-control driving. This too, has its limitations.

The government’s stop-gap answer: Traffic spooks. Just pay people for reporting traffic scofflaws.

Any person or entity gets a little more than $1 for every documented violation recorded by video. Traffic violations, depending on their seriousness, can trigger a fine ranging from about $12 to over $600.

Independent traffic snoops have established a cottage industry, using dashcams to prove video documentation. Considering the free-for-all driving style in Uzbekistan, a good “hunter” can make a reasonable salary for these efforts – even at the rate of just over a dollar per infraction.

The rewards garnered $122,000 in payoffs in 2020. The state collected ($5.1 million) in its attempt to establish some road order.

The campaign — or at least the drive to reduce death on the roads — has even secured an endorsement of sorts from clerics in predominantly Muslim, but largely secular, Uzbekistan. Last month the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan issued a fatwa on abiding by traffic rules by Muslims for the sake of saving people’s lives.

The success of the programme of informers has encouraged the government to hike the possibilities for bounty hunters seeking to boost their income.

This year, traffic spook aspirants were widened to include any individual, driver or pedestrian. They can use dashcams and mobile phone cameras or any other video device and get a payoff.

CRIES OF “SNITCH”, “BASTARDS”

While many locals applaud the crackdown, others used to ripping up the byways and highways with impunity are enraged. The informal traffic enforcers are compared with jail-house informants.

The freelance road snoops have been castigated as “snitches”, “bastards”, and other unprintable epithets, often using Soviet-style “prison” slang – which in Russian have an especially stinging ring.

Detractors even allege ulterior motives: To raise a generation of habitual institutional street-informants or “betrayers”. They argue the state should create better conditions for drivers if the real intent is road safety.

INORMERS RISK BEATINGS

Enraged drivers have on occasions resorted to physical violence.

Viral internet video and photo footage includes a mob in the eastern city of Andijan beating a person who reportedly recorded alleged traffic-rule breaking on his cell phone.

In another, two young men can be seen attempting to destroy a newly installed traffic monitoring camera by hurling rocks at it.

FARMING OUT TRAFFIC CAMS

Uzbekistan has indeed begun installing cameras in larger cities to nab red-light haters, speeders, drivers who weave in and out of lanes, those who engage in distracted driving by jabbering on cell phones behind the wheel, or who fail to put on seat belts. In 2020, cameras and radars on the roads of Uzbekistan recorded over 1.7 million traffic violations, garnering 724.6 billion soums ($68.4 million) in fines.

But the task is a mammoth one in a country of 35 million whose landmass is close to that of Germany combined with the Benelux countries. Uzbekistan is auctioning sites where private firms can bid to install automated software and hardware for photo and video recording of traffic violations.

Under the scheme, in their first year, private firms will get 50 percent of the amount of fines paid by wrongdoers. In the second year, the rewards will be 25 percent of fines collected.

BACKLASH BY SOME USED TO LAWLESS DRIVING

The new measures are most hated by gypsy-cab drivers or those who seem to get a kick out of speeding and neglecting traffic lights.

The crackdown and unusual approach have even created some rare political dissent in official circles.

MP Rasul Kusherbayev recently sided with scofflaw drivers, comparing the recording of traffic violations with “betrayal” and paving the way for the “society of kozyols, (bastards)”, saying the state should concentrate on road infrastructure instead.

“One gets the impression that we are raising betrayers… who will be ready to sell everything, even their motherland, for their own benefit,” he told a local blogger.

He said that as a member of the parliament, he can support entrepreneurs (traffic spooks) and wish them good luck. Still, as an “ordinary citizen, a driver”, he believes that “this has a bad effect on the psychology of people”.

“I understand it would help to ensure road safety. However, there must be infrastructure first,” he said.

Other MPs disagreed, saying fines for road violations were a normal part of contemporary society.

Justice Minister Ruslanbek Davlatov said the media should steer clear of insulting language when describing the  negative attitude towards people who report wrongdoers.

“Using these words against those people is an insult and disrespect towards those who are working to ensure the rule of law… Over the past two to three years, 5,000 people have died on the roads. What is your answer to this? If a person commits illegal actions in a public place, then, if necessary, I am ready to ‘sell my soul’ to stop this,” the minister said.

RANDOM PUBLIC REACTIONS

Two motorists, one in the capital Tashkent and another in the eastern Fergana Valley, were critical of those who report traffic violations on mobile devices for a price.

“Frankly, I earn money by picking up clients on my way to work and back like many of my friends in Tashkent,” Adham, a 39-year-old gypsy cab driver, told The Tribune. “Sometimes, I have to stop in places officially prohibited for this. But otherwise, I would lose a client. Such prohibitions are all over the place.”

Adham acknowledges that he is not against reporting a serious breach of traffic rules when done deliberately or out of negligence. But some of the traffic snitches, he said, were just making a buck out of arcane rules.

“Those people who report to earn money don’t care if you had to breach it out of necessity.”

Miralem, 57, says drivers sometimes break rules because of poorly maintained roads and poorly designed intersections.

“Recently, I paid a fine. Someone driving behind me recorded and reported on me,” he said. “But my anger is that it was clear from the video that I was forced to switch lanes to avoid a pothole in the road. But [snitches] don’t care. That’s why I hate them.”

Another driver, who asked not to be identified, told the Tribune that he supported punishing traffic wrongdoers through improvised means – despite the plethora of insults hurled their way, as road safety was the main issue.

“I don’t care what they call us. I want roads to be safe for me, for my parents and children. There must be no mercy for those who breach the rules, whatever the reason. Because it saves lives. Some say it is not morally right to do so, according to our mentality and religion. But I don’t care. I want my children to live in a civilised society that abides by the laws, not in a society that lives by criminal, street laws,” he said.

He hopes that despite opposition to the new measures, the time will come when detractors will understand.

MUSLIM BOARD STEPS IN WITH FATWA

The predominance of Muslims  — the largest population in Central Asia — made it only logical that clergy had something to say about the issue.

Last month’s fatwa upholding traffic rules was couched in language intended to safeguard people’s lives, different generations and their assets (cars).

The Board concluded that if a Muslim dies due to an accident caused by speeding, their actions can be considered a violation of Sharia laws. Thus, a suicidal act prohibited in Islamic law as a major sin.

The clergy is all the more active since President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016. He loosened restrictions and sought to end government suspicion over observant Muslims, often put under surveillance or subjected to police attention.

The Muslim call to prayer was often forbidden or restricted until 2016 as the government feared the spread of radicalism. Loudspeakers at mosques issuing the call to prayer have again become frequent and thousands attend Friday prayers.

This naturally means a throng of cars around mosques and more work for traffic police on Fridays, so much so that roads are often closed to ensure safety.

However, Uzbek clerics have yet to express an opinion on those making a profit from reporting traffic violations.