Disabled people were equated with children – Newspaper Kommersant No. 209 (7410) dated 11/11/2022

The State Duma adopted in the first reading the bill of “United Russia”, which prohibits disembarking from buses, trams and trolleybuses disabled people of the first group who have not paid the fare. The fine for violating the ban will reach 30 thousand rubles. The government supported the amendments, but asked the deputies to decide what to do if a citizen does not have documents confirming disability. The amendments may provoke some citizens to travel for free, according to the Duma Committee on Transport.

On Thursday, the State Duma adopted in the first reading amendments to the “Charter of Road Transport and Urban Ground Electric Transport” with a ban on disembarking disabled people of the first group traveling unaccompanied from buses, trolleybuses and trams if they did not pay the fare or did not confirm their right to preferential free pass. The fine will be 5 thousand rubles. for a driver or up to 30 thousand for an “official” (controller). Recallbenefits for the disabled in transport are established by decision of the regional authorities: free travel, reduced fares or compensation for the ticket price by direct payments.

Today, passengers who refuse to pay are required to leave the cabin at the next stop. Recall, in 2021, after a series of incidents that caused a violent public reaction, when bus drivers left schoolchildren in the cold, deputies introduced a ban on disembarking minors from vehicles. In March 2022, United Russia deputies Andrey Isaev, Mikhail Terentyev and Marina Orgeeva proposed extending this rule to people with disabilities of the first group. A significant part of them, the explanatory note says, cannot travel without an escort, but situations still arise that force them to use public transport on their own.

“Sometimes they could not buy a ticket for various reasons or forgot their social card,” the deputies say. “As a result, disabled people find themselves in a difficult situation.”

So, in August 2021 in St. Petersburg, the driver of a commercial bus tried to drop a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy from the passenger compartment for unpaid travel. The case was widely discussed in the media, as a result, the driver was fired. This incident, said Mikhail Terentyev, speaking in the State Duma, was the reason for the amendments.

The bill does not resolve the issue of “legal consequences” if a citizen does not present documents on disability and refuses to pay for travel, the government’s response to the amendments says. The White House supported the amendments, but asks to finalize the bill. “Establishing a ban on disembarkation may provoke the passage of persons without payment, who have declared to the controlling persons that they are disabled persons of the first group,” wrote Evgeny Moskvichev, head of the transport committee, in his conclusion. When the ban on minors was introduced, United Russia Pavel Fedyaev recalled on Thursday, many feared that teenagers would massively abuse and ride for free, but this did not happen. Disabled people are also unlikely to do this, Mikhail Terentyev supported him.

“It can also be difficult for disabled people of the second group to leave public transport and then somehow get somewhere,” noted the communist Alexei Kurinny.

His fellow party member Oleg Smolin added that a person without a leg can have a disability of the second group. The idea to extend the rule to other groups was discussed, Mikhail Terentyev said, but there is a risk: if such a citizen forgets the document at home, the driver or controller will not always be able to understand that they are facing a person with disabilities. It is also not always possible to identify a disabled person of the first group without documents, communist Olga Alimova noted. The idea of ​​expanding the ban can be returned to after the practice of applying the discussed amendments is formed, Mr. Terentyev concluded.

Spravoross Alexander Aksenenko, in turn, announced the need to analyze the “accessibility” of public transport for the disabled against the backdrop of a special military operation and the return of military personnel who need “adaptation” from the front (meaning, probably, those who were injured during the fighting citizens). Mikhail Terentiev noted that this is not a question of this bill, but the data can be requested from the Ministry of Transport.

Amendments to the bill for the second reading must be submitted by 9 December.

Ivan Buranov