Drivers decided not to put money in the wheels

The State Duma, at the request of the government, rejects as “irrelevant” a bill on the introduction of a deposit for a car, which was supposed to be paid to a motorist caught drunk driving. The authorities proposed such a measure ten years ago to tighten control over drivers, but the matter never came to the adoption of amendments. The State Duma reminds that a year ago the law on the confiscation of cars from drunkards began to operate, and so far it is enough.

The idea of ​​a deposit for a car was discussed in the government back in 2013. Then it eventually became part of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s plan to reduce road deaths (the plan was approved in 2015). At the same time, the government submitted a bill to the State Duma, the essence of which was as follows. If today a driver gets behind the wheel drunk and is stopped by an inspector, the car is “delayed” by the traffic police (evacuated to a car pound), and the materials against the motorist are sent to court. In this case, a relative or acquaintance with the rights can pick up the car. In this case, it is not taken away on a tow truck, which means that the owner can easily be behind the wheel again, the government explained. To combat this phenomenon, a bail was offered: in any case, the car was supposed to be evacuated to a car impound and allowed to be picked up only after paying 30 thousand rubles – the same amount is a fine for drunk driving. Then, when the court decides to punish the driver and deprive him of his rights, the paid deposit will be credited against the fine. If the court finds the driver innocent, then the money will be returned.

Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses were approved in the first reading in May 2016 and were being prepared for final adoption (even a table of improvements was developed). Since then, however, the bill has been stagnant. The decision to recall, according to Kommersant, was made after a meeting between State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and head of the government apparatus Dmitry Grigorenko in January 2023. Mr. Volodin then said that there were 269 bills in Parliament, of which 95 had not been moved for more than a year, and asked the White House to “deal with” this. On March 21, a letter signed by Mr. Grigorenko appeared in the database of the State Duma, where he proposed to reject and withdraw several bills from the parliament at once, including one on a pledge for a car. As previously reported by Kommersant, with the wording of the loss of relevance, the government withdrew 22 bills submitted to the State Duma (see Kommersant of March 27). The Ministry of Justice opposed the further adoption of amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, pointing out that it is impossible to finalize them “correctly,” the interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the discussion of the project in the government, explained. Another interlocutor says that the Ministry of Internal Affairs remained the only agency that insisted on the adoption of the document. As a result, yesterday the State Duma Committee on State Construction during a meeting recommended that the bill be rejected due to “loss of relevance.”

Over the past six years, a number of other laws have been adopted aimed at combating drunk driving, Irina Pankina, the first deputy chairman of the committee, explained to Kommersant (United Russia). She cites the law on the confiscation of cars of drunk drivers, which entered into force in July 2022, as an example. “Kommersant” talked about this initiative: the car turns into state revenue if the driver is caught drunk driving for the second time during the year. There are no judicial statistics on this issue yet, but, as Kommersant knows, this practice has not yet become widespread. The pledge bill will be rejected according to the standard scheme, Ms. Pankina explained, amendments with all the necessary documents, including the committee’s conclusion on its rejection, are sent to the State Duma Council, after which they are submitted to the chamber for consideration.

“The idea was ambiguous from the very beginning,” Sergei Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement, comments on the situation. On the other hand, to withhold money from a citizen just because he may be found guilty in the future is clearly excessive.” Mr. Radko does not rule out that the decision is connected with the preparation by the Ministry of Justice of a new Code of Administrative Offenses and the Procedural Code on Administrative Offenses, where “everything can be foreseen”, including the introduction of bail. Recall that the department has been preparing the draft codes since 2019, it has not yet been submitted to the State Duma.

The concept of the bill “was subjected to reasonable criticism” for the fact that a person who has not yet been found guilty by the court had to pay a significant amount as a deposit for the return of the car, as well as for special parking services, reminds coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement Petr Shkumatov. “As a result, this could become the basis of a grandiose corruption scheme. I think this risk was the main factor that influenced the recall,” he said.

The government made this decision in connection with the “difficult economic situation” in the country, lawyer Lev Voropaev believes. “We decided not to aggravate the already difficult situation of citizens. Plus, they probably expect that the confiscation introduced last year will bear some fruit in the form of reducing the number of drunk drivers on the roads and the accident rate,” he says. According to the traffic police, 288.4 thousand drunk drivers were identified in 2022, 1% less than in 2021. During the year, there were 11.7 thousand road accidents (minus 8.3%) involving drunk motorists, in which 3.4 thousand citizens died (minus 6.9%).

Ivan Buranov