Translated material
Winked at the drivers
Senators introduced a bill to the State Duma limiting the number of cars with special signals
Legislators have joined the fight against privileges on the roads. Yesterday, the Federation Council submitted to the lower house - the State Duma - a bill designed to sharply reduce the number of cars with special signals. Amendments to the law “On Road Safety” and the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO), which senators introduced for consideration by deputies, essentially contain the same demands that independent automobile activists have repeatedly made.According to the authors of the bill, flashing lights, which give the right to a special position on the road, must be left only on the vehicles of operational services: fire department, police, ambulance, emergency services and military automobile inspection. In addition to vehicles with color schemes on their sides, the bill allows flashing lights to be installed on “vehicles of government agencies empowered to carry out operational investigative activities, inquiries, and preliminary investigations.” In cases where law enforcement officers have the right to priority on the road, the bill also includes “urgent actions to clear mines, suppress terrorist attacks and violations of the state border regime.”
The number of senior officials entitled to use blue lanterns and other special attributes is proposed to be reduced to a minimum. As explained by one of the co-authors of the amendments, head of the Federation Council Committee on Industrial Policy Valentin Zavadnikov, according to the bill, “devices for giving special light and sound signals” can be used by the president, head of government, speakers of both houses of parliament, heads of the three highest courts, the prosecutor general and others “persons of special status” (if this status is established by the relevant law). In addition, from the text of the bill it follows that flashing lights can be installed on cars of the Federal Security Service if they are traveling in the motorcade of a VIP person subject to state protection. According to the developers of the amendments, drivers of cars with special signals should be subject to special, increased requirements in terms of age, experience and ability to drive a car.
“The ban on installing blue flashing lights and sound signals on the official cars of a number of officials will significantly reduce the number of cars whose drivers are allowed to violate traffic rules, which will increase traffic safety on the roads,” Valentin Zavadnikov explained the point of view of the authors of the bill. The senator states: the current legislation allows the installation of special signals on the cars of 42 senior officials, whose safety is ensured by the FSO, but in reality there are much more privileged cars. “They say that there are now 7.5 thousand such cars,” Mr. Zavadnikov shared his data.
Officials who install flashing lights on their cars take advantage of the legal confusion - now the question of who has the right to special signals is regulated not only by traffic rules, but also by a large number of other documents. “A number of provisions are not fully consistent with each other, and in some cases contradict each other,” notes Valentin Zavadnikov. The current bill was created in order to “systematically regulate the use of special light and sound signals.”
In the State Duma, the initiative to systematize flashing lights was received ambiguously. Vice-speaker of the lower house from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Ivan Melnikov said that his faction will support the bill if it reflects the demands of the communists. However, these requirements coincide with what the senators propose: flashing lights should remain on the vehicles of operational services and in the possession of top officials of the state. “The circle of such persons representing government bodies should be as limited as possible and very clearly defined, so that no deputies of deputy ministers pretend to be God knows what,” said Comrade. Melnikov to the Interfax agency. “The illegal use of flashing lights must be nipped in the bud - all businessmen, all sorts of tough guys, acquaintances of acquaintances and former big bosses must be deprived of any opportunity to use special signals.”
Another deputy speaker, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his comrades in the LDPR faction, on the contrary, perceived the initiative of the senators with displeasure. “It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense to establish such a ban!” - said Mr. Zhirinovsky, explaining that the restriction on the use of flashing lights is already in effect. “The government has strictly defined the list of those who can use such signals,” the LDPR leader emphasized.
The United Russia faction, on which, for obvious reasons, the fate of the bill depends, has not yet formulated its position.
The automotive community is cautiously skeptical about the prospects for passage of the amendments. The head of the Moscow branch of the Federation of Car Owners of Russia, the organizer of protests by drivers, Sergei Kanaev, said that the movement would hold a rally in support of the senators’ initiative. The leader of the capital's FAR cell fears that the bill may be blocked by the Duma, just as happened with similar attempts to reason with the owners of flashing lights. “This is not the first time that bills of this kind have been proposed,” notes Mr. Kanaev.
“Everything will depend on the position of the president,” Viktor Pokhmelkin, leader of the Russian Motorists Movement, told Vremya Novostey. “The Duma majority represented by United Russia, no matter how much it wants, will support the position that the head of state will take.” According to Mr. Pokhmelkin, the amendments proposed by the Federation Council look quite moderate. “I have always been a supporter of the most radical ban on the use of special signals,” the DAR leader emphasized. - They should be left only for emergency services vehicles. From my point of view, the fact that an exception was made for some high-ranking officials is completely unjustified, since escort vehicles, by definition, are equipped with flashing lights.
The traffic police do not believe that reducing the number of cars with special signals can significantly improve the situation on Russian roads. “Today there are thousands of them (cars with flashing lights - Ed. ), no matter what anyone says. But they do not create the problem they are talking about,” said Viktor Kiryanov, head of the Road Traffic Safety Department (ROSA) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, yesterday on the Ekho Moskvy radio station. According to the country's chief traffic inspector, even if one or two flashing lights are left, traffic in Moscow will remain just as difficult. Mr. Kiryanov is equally indifferent to automobile activists who install blue plastic buckets on their cars, thus protesting against blue flashing lights. True, the head of the traffic police emphasized that traffic cops do not have the right to stop participants in a protest action just for the presence of a bucket on the roof of the car.