Motorists were left without points – Newspaper Kommersant No. 63 (7508) dated 04/12/2023

The State Duma rejected a government bill to deprive the rights of drivers who “systematically” commit gross violations of traffic rules. The amendments, which many compared to the Soviet point system, were being prepared back in 2016 as a way to punish motorists “with persistent antisocial behavior.” For five years, the State Duma has not brought the document to adoption, as a result, the authorities abandoned it.

The government bill discussed yesterday introduced a new article in the Code of Administrative Offenses “Systematic violation of the rules for the operation, use of a vehicle and driving a vehicle.” It was supposed to compile a list of the most dangerous violations, in the event of which more than three times (and in any combination) a deprivation of a driver’s license for a period of 1.5 years and a fine of 10-30 thousand rubles would be assigned. The list included 17 trains, including refusing to give way to pedestrians, running a red light, exceeding the speed limit by more than 40 km/h, pulling over the side of the road, and others. A number of experts compared the project with the Soviet point system, when traffic police inspectors pierced holes in the rights – there could be a maximum of three, then the document was confiscated.

In October 2016, the amendments were adopted on first reading. Speaking in the State Duma, Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said that 40% of all accidents are caused by drivers who have previously been repeatedly held accountable. The explanatory note to the amendments referred to “persons with persistent antisocial behavior” – drivers who regularly ignore traffic rules – to combat which a new system was needed. The State Duma Committee on State Construction “conceptually” supported the amendments, proposing to work out in more detail, in particular, the “proportionality” of sanctions.

To all appearances, it was not possible to do this: the development bill was not received, in April 2023 the State Construction Committee recommended that the amendments be rejected. According to his conclusion, the draft law appears to be “not relevant enough”. The head of the committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, recalls that in 2021 the State Duma already adopted amendments to the Criminal Code (effective from July 25, 2022) and introduced criminal penalties for repeated violations of traffic rules – driving through a red light, driving into the oncoming lane, driving with false numbers, etc. e. If we also adopt amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, then this may “entail difficulties in law enforcement practice in distinguishing between administrative and criminal liability,” the committee concluded.

Yesterday the document was rejected almost without discussion. Daniil Bessarabov, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Construction Committee (United Russia), called the bill “unreasonable.” By rejecting the amendments, the deputies are doing a “good deed,” Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR), head of the Duma’s committee on social policy, said, since the bill essentially returned the Soviet repressive system with holes in its rights. According to the deputy, all motorists opposed it.

At the beginning of the year, we recall, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, at a meeting with the head of the government apparatus, Dmitry Grigorenko, said that there were 95 bills in parliament that had not been moved for more than a year, asking the White House to “deal with” this situation. Subsequently, the government with the wording “loss of relevance” withdrew 22 bills submitted, but not yet considered, the rest asked the deputies to reject and remove from the agenda. Among the withdrawn amendments (in addition to those rejected yesterday) is a bill introducing a deposit for a car, which was supposed to be paid to a motorist caught drunk driving. The authorities proposed such a measure in 2016 to tighten control, which Kommersant talked about earlier.

Ivan Buranov