Translated material
Unfasten your seat belts
The State Duma begins to tighten the “automobile” chapter of the Code of Administrative Offenses
Calls for increasing fines for motorists over the past few years have finally been formalized into a bill, which will soon be presented to the lower house of parliament. Yesterday, changes to Chapter 12 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) were approved by the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, the chairman of which is one of the authors of the amendments, Vladimir Pligin. The bill, which significantly tightens repressive sanctions for violators of traffic rules, has been recommended for the first reading, which the deputies will clearly not delay. Moreover, yesterday, speaking at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Security, First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Chekalin once again called on them to listen to the opinion of traffic inspectors.The basis of the document, in particular, was a proposal to sixfold increase the minimum fine from 50 rubles. (0.5 minimum wage for fines) up to 300 rubles. (3 minimum wage). Therefore, the changes will affect almost all articles of the “automobile” chapter of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which describe even the most seemingly minor offenses. (By the way, the notorious conversation on a mobile phone while driving is excluded from this category - the use of communication means without special devices that free the driver’s hands, the authors of the amendments propose to punish with a fine of 3 minimum wages.) As for really serious violations of traffic rules, then - Mr. Pligin and his like-minded people propose not only to increase financial responsibility for them and increase the terms of deprivation of the right to drive a car, but also to more actively use such a measure as administrative arrest for up to 15 days. Now, if it is used, it is only in relation to malicious non-payers of fines.
It is also important that legislators met halfway the leadership of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which had long sought the restoration of a points system for recording offenses.
The amendments introduce a new article into the Code of Administrative Offences, providing for separate punishment for systematic (according to deputies, this is more than three times) violation of traffic rules. Serious offenses will be assessed with penalty points, and exceeding the threshold of ten points will result in an automatic suspension of your driving license for two years.
Vladimir Pligin has repeatedly stated earlier that tightening penalties for violating traffic rules will play a preventive role, although, according to him, “it is unlikely to enrich the state budget.” However, as independent State Duma deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin, who heads the Russian Motorists Movement, told Vremya Novostei, his colleagues from United Russia again forgot that they were handing a punishing sword into the hands of an organization in need of significant reform. Moreover, the authors of the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses give the traffic inspectorate additional powers. “The bill is not only about tightening liability, this part can be supported in principle,” says Mr. Pokhmelkin, who believes that “fines in their current form are truly inadequate to the public danger.” However, he objects to expanding the powers of traffic police officers. Of particular concern to motorists, according to the deputy, are the “return of the right to conduct instrumental control during technical inspection, the actual legalization of car evacuation, the right of the inspectorate to add up points, the right to conduct an initial examination on the spot using the notorious “tube.” “No tightening in itself will improve the situation on the road if it is not supported by other measures,” believes Viktor Pokhmelkin.
The president of the College of Legal Defense of Car Owners, Viktor Travin, pointed out in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent that a hasty tightening of penalties for violating traffic rules can lead to a result that is directly opposite to the desired one. An example of this is the story of Kemerovo driver Artem Belyakov, who was recently deprived of his license for 49 years (until 2055) for being detained for violating traffic rules 55 times during the year. “Artem Belyakov is, of course, an extreme case, but it clearly shows how the state has driven itself into a trap by mechanically increasing the period of deprivation of rights for certain violations and leaving no alternative,” says Mr. Travin. - Belyakov has nothing more to lose. Further deprivation of his right to drive is an ineffective measure; it is unlikely that this will be relevant for him after 74 years of age. And therefore, he can now drive his own or someone else’s car every day, and this will not threaten him in any way.”
Indeed, Belyakov, who did not work anywhere, drove drunk, refused to undergo a medical examination, and when his license was taken away, he continued to calmly drive without them. In addition, Belyakov did not pay any of the fines, the total amount of which amounted to 60.5 thousand rubles. Now the bailiffs are trying to seize the car of this street “repeat offender,” thereby creating a precedent whereby the vehicle in which it was committed has to pay for traffic violations.
The story with Belyakov is called curious, but in fact it means that “with all the wealth of choice,” the traffic police did not have any real tools to remove the violator, who poses a real danger, from the road and punish him. It is not a fact that the point system with administrative arrests will seem to the traffic police to be an effective way of education, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not soon require a new tightening of sanctions. After all, Alexander Chekalin yesterday, in fact, suggested not doing arithmetic and adding up the terms and amounts of fines. In his opinion, the courts should simply deprive for life the rights of those drivers who repeatedly violate the rules while intoxicated, and their cars, also without going into scrupulous calculations, should simply be confiscated.
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State Duma proposals to increase fines for drivers
| Driving a vehicle that is not duly registered | 0.5 minimum wage or warning | 3 minimum wage |
| Driving a vehicle that has not passed state technical inspection | 0.5 minimum wage or warning | 5 minimum wage |
| Driving a vehicle with unreadable, non-standard or installed in violation of the requirements of the state standard state registration plates | 0.5 minimum wage | 3 minimum wage |
| Driving a vehicle with a known faulty braking system (except for the parking brake), steering or coupling device (as part of a train) | 3--5 minimum wage | 5--10 minimum wage |
| Driving a vehicle by a driver not wearing a seat belt, transporting passengers not wearing seat belts, if the design of the vehicle provides for seat belts, as well as driving a motorcycle or transporting passengers on a motorcycle without motorcycle helmets or wearing unfastened motorcycle helmets | 0.5 minimum wage or warning | 5 minimum wage |
| Driving a vehicle by a driver who does not have the right to drive a vehicle (except for training driving) | 7--10 minimum wage | 25 minimum wage or administrative arrest for up to 15 days |
| Driving a vehicle by a driver deprived of driving privileges | 10--15 minimum wage | 25 minimum wages or administrative arrest for up to 15 days or deprivation of the right to drive for another period of 1.5 to 2 months |
| Driving a vehicle by a driver who is deprived of the right to drive and is intoxicated | - | Administrative arrest for 15 days |
| Failure of a driver, previously deprived of the right to drive, to comply with the lawful demand of a police officer to undergo a medical examination for intoxication | - | Administrative arrest for 15 days |
| Exceeding the established speed of a vehicle by 10 to 20 kilometers per hour | 0.5 minimum wage or warning | 3 minimum wage |
| from 20 to 40 kilometers per hour | 1 minimum wage | 5 minimum wage |
| from 40 to 60 kilometers per hour | 1--3 minimum wage | 10--15 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1 to 1.5 years |
| over 60 kilometers per hour | 3--5 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 2 to 4 months | 20--25 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1.5 to 2 years |
| Driving through a prohibiting traffic light or a traffic controller's prohibiting gesture | 1 minimum wage | 10--15 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1 to 1.5 years |
| Failure to comply with the requirement of the Traffic Rules to give way to a vehicle having priority right of passage through intersections | 1--2 minimum wage | 10 minimum wage |
| Driving on bicycle or pedestrian paths, shoulders or sidewalks in violation of the Traffic Rules | 0.5 minimum wage | 10--15 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1 to 1.5 years |
| Driving to the side of the road intended for oncoming traffic, in cases where this is prohibited by the Traffic Rules | 3--5 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 2 to 4 months | 20--25 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1.5 to 2 years |
| Failure to provide priority in traffic to a vehicle that has special color schemes, inscriptions and designations applied to its external surfaces, with a blue flashing light and a special sound signal turned on at the same time | 3--5 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1 to 3 months | 20--25 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1.5 to 2 years |
| Violation of the rules for stopping or parking vehicles on the sidewalk, resulting in the creation of obstacles to the movement of pedestrians | 1--2 minimum wage | 10 minimum wage |
| Violation of the rules for stopping or parking vehicles on the roadway, resulting in the creation of obstacles to the movement of other vehicles, as well as stopping or parking a vehicle in a tunnel | 1--3 minimum wage | 15 minimum wage |
| Violation of instructional driving rules by a driver teaching how to drive a vehicle | 1 minimum wage | 8 minimum wage |
| Violation of the rules for transporting people | 1 minimum wage | 5 minimum wage |
| Violation of traffic rules or vehicle operating rules, resulting in minor harm to the health of the victim | 5--8 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 3 to 6 months | 10--15 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1 to 1.5 years |
| Violation of traffic rules or rules of operation of a vehicle, resulting in the infliction of moderate harm to the health of the victim | 15--25 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 6 to 12 months | 20--25 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1.5 to 2 years |
| Failure to comply with a lawful request of a police officer to stop a vehicle | 2--5 minimum wage | 20--25 minimum wage or deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1.5 to 2 years |
| Violation of the Traffic Rules by a pedestrian or passenger of a vehicle, resulting in interference with the movement of vehicles | 1 minimum wage | 3--5 minimum wage |
| Driving a vehicle during the period of its use, not provided for by the insurance policy of compulsory insurance of civil liability of vehicle owners, as well as driving a vehicle in violation of the conditions provided for in this insurance policy for driving this vehicle only by the drivers specified in this insurance policy | 3 minimum wage | 5 minimum wage |
| Failure by the owner of a vehicle to fulfill the obligation established by federal law to insure his civil liability, as well as driving a vehicle if such compulsory insurance is obviously absent. Today, the minimum wage for calculating fines is 100 rubles. | 5--8 minimum wage | 10 minimum wage |