The Federation Council approved the bill on toughening the punishment for "drunken" accidents

The Federation Council on June 11 , following the State Duma, approved the law on strengthening criminal liability for a fatal accident committed through the fault of drunken drivers, TASS reports.

Amendments to the Criminal Code say that in case of serious harm to health, the sentence for a drunken culprit of the accident will be increased from the maximum 4 years to 3-7 years in prison, with the death of a person-from 2-7 to 5-12 years, and in the event of the death of two or more persons-from 4-9 to 8-15 years of imprisonment. In all cases, an additional punishment in the form of deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or to engage in certain activities for a period of up to 3 years is also provided. At the same time, the amendments provides for tightening sanctions for the commission of similar crimes on railway, airy, sea, inland water transport and in the subway.

The explanatory note to the bill states that in 2017, 4.3 thousand people died due to the fault of drunken drivers, and in 2018 - already 4.6 thousand. At the same time, a significant part of the convicts under Art. 264 again gets behind the wheel in a drunken form. According to legislators, toughening the punishment should help reduce mortality in an accident by 3.5 times by 2024 - this indicator was laid down in the May decree of the president of 2018.

"The adoption of the Federal Law will increase the effectiveness of the preventive impact of the criminal law in terms of criminal violations of the rules of traffic safety and the operation of vehicles committed intoxicated," the relevant committee of the SF for constitutional legislation and state building notes.

Recall, on April 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that tightens the punishment for drivers who hid from the scene of an accident with victims and dead. Now drivers hiding from the scene of an accident facing up to four years in prison, if there are injured with severe injuries in the accident, up to seven years old, if one person died in an accident, and up to nine years old, if the accident led to the death of two or more people.