Interpretation and application of Traffic Rules in road traffic accident proceedings: state of scientific development of the issue

The article presents an analysis of scholarly research dedicated to road traffic accidents (RTAs) and legal regulation in the field of road traffic safety. The author establishes that, despite a significant number of studies focused on administrative, criminal, criminological, and forensic aspects of RTAs, comprehensive legal research specifically addressing the interpretation of the Traffic Rules (TR) is virtually absent in Ukrainian legal scholarship. The review of sources demonstrates the fragmented nature of academic attention to this issue. The article identifies three groups of academic works in the area of road safety, based on their subject focus: (1) legal-doctrinal studies addressing the legal nature of RTAs, types of legal liability, causation, and qualification of offenses; (2) studies analyzing specific provisions of the TR through the lens of judicial and investigative practice, revealing inconsistencies, legal gaps, and the need for regulatory improvement; (3) expert and forensic studies focused on technical reconstruction of RTAs, the moment of danger emergence, trace analysis, and drivers’ actions. It is noted that the latter group most frequently engages with specific TR provisions but focuses mainly on their technical application, avoiding a systemic legal analysis of their content and structure. Particular attention is given to case law as a form of casuistic interpretation of TR provisions, which illustrates the divergence in judicial approaches to their interpretation, directly affecting the accuracy of law enforcement. The study concludes that current judicial and investigative practice requires a doctrinally supported, unified model for interpreting the TR, based on a modern methodological toolkit and accounting for the regulatory nature of the rules. It is argued that the interpretation of the TR should become an independent object of legal science, which would enhance legal certainty, predictability, and safety in the domain of road traffic. This research lays the methodological groundwork for developing a doctrine of TR interpretation that, on the one hand, reflects national enforcement practices and, on the other hand, aligns with contemporary approaches to legal interpretation as a substantive process of legal analysis. The article highlights the need for a consistent shift from purely formal application of the TR to their flexible, reasoned, and systematic interpretation, both in legal practice and in academic discourse.