Abstract
The author investigates the history of development of criminal legislation on liability for offenses related to violation of traffic safety rules or operation of transport, from 1917 to 2014. The paper analyzes the decrees and resolutions of the Soviet period in the field of traffic safety, articles of the Criminal code of the RSFSR as amended in 1922 and 1926, acting on the territory of modern Kazakhstan until January 1, 1960, the norms of the Criminal Code of the Kazakh SSR in 1959, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan as amended in 1997 and 2014 on transport crimes. The analyzed period is characterized by the appearance of a special Chapter of the special part of the Criminal Code, a steady increase in the number of articles on liability for transport offenses, the specification of articles of a general nature by the allocation of special rules, tougher responsibility for violations of safety rules, which caused serious consequences, the transfer of certain transport administrative offenses to the criminal law, etc. This trend is explained by the rapid growth of the country’s transport fleet, the increase in speed, intensity of traffic, the need to protect society from accidents and catastrophes and bringing the criminal law in line with the needs of practice.