Translated material
Drink stop
The Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes “no alternative sanctions” for drunken culprits of road accidents
In order for drivers who get behind the wheel while intoxicated to receive a truly deserved punishment, the measures provided for by the updated articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses are not enough. Punishment of drunk drivers can only become effective if criminal liability for this crime is tightened. This opinion is shared by Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, who will present a bill amending Art. 264 of the Criminal Code (“Violation of traffic rules and operation of vehicles”).This article deals with punishment for committing an accident that resulted in the death of one or more people or caused “grievous bodily harm.” The developers of the amendments to the Criminal Code emphasize: the current version of the code establishes the same sanctions for both drunk and sober drivers, which is not entirely logical.
“In just six months of 2007, almost 100 thousand accidents occurred on the roads of our country, in which more than 12.9 thousand were killed and over 123 thousand were injured, while every thirteenth accident in the Russian Federation was committed by drunk drivers condition,” says the explanatory note attached to the bill.
The authors of the amendments propose to add to Article 264 “the element of a crime such as a person being in a state of intoxication.” Let us recall that according to the current Criminal Code, alcohol or drug intoxication does not in any way affect the qualification of a criminal act - unlike the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, where this condition was included in the list of circumstances aggravating criminal liability. The Ministry of Internal Affairs believes that for drunk driving resulting in serious harm to health, a “no alternative sanction” should be used - imprisonment for up to three years. Now the maximum punishment is two years in prison, but the offender can get off with a suspended sentence. Part 2 Art. 264 establishes: if a violation of traffic rules causes the death of a person, the heaviest punishment for the offender can be imprisonment for a term of up to five years, and if two or more people died - seven years. The bill suggests that for those who committed this crime while driving while intoxicated, the maximum punishment will be increased - to seven and nine years in prison, respectively. “Changes to the legislation of the Russian Federation will significantly reduce the number of road accidents and the severity of their consequences,” the developers of the amendments are confident.
“Why is it believed that any tightening of sanctions guarantees a decrease in the number of offenses and an increase in legal awareness?” - asks the president of the College of Legal Protection of Car Owners, Viktor Travin. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, the lawyer emphasized: the punishment for drunk driving should be severe, but in the current conditions, any increase in the punishment will primarily affect the “bribery capacity” of those who are the first to arrive at the scene of the incident - traffic police officers. “These amendments will work for the pocket of the traffic inspector, and then for the pocket of the investigator and the pocket of the judge,” lawyer Travin is sure.
The lawyer believes that the desire of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to “criminalize” responsibility for road accidents is in fact “an admission of the helplessness of internal affairs bodies,” which cannot ensure proper prevention of these offenses. “Instead of saying: “We studied the reasons that lead to road accidents with victims, we studied the conditions conducive to such accidents, we created good markings, traffic lights, intersections, and now at the prevention stage we can prevent accidents,” they shift responsibility to the courts and the Ministry of Justice,” emphasizes Viktor Travin.
At the same time, the lawyer is skeptical about the prospect of accepting the amendments developed by Mr. Nurgaliev’s department. “As you know, causing harm of moderate gravity in order to humanize the legislation was “dragged” from criminal to administrative legislation,” recalls Mr. Travin. “Does the minister really think that the deputies who two years ago introduced “medium severity” into the Code of Administrative Offenses will now “take it all back”?”