Rules for the examination of drivers will be assessed for legal uncertainty

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will check the legality of the current rules for testing drivers for intoxication. Vladimir Andreyuk from the Kurgan region filed a lawsuit with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who believes that “legal uncertainty” and “the possibility of arbitrary interpretation” of the rules by the traffic police allow them to send drivers for medical checks at their discretion. Mr. Andreyuk himself was deprived of his license after he crashed his car into a truck. “Kommersant” got acquainted with the response of the police department to the driver’s claims.

Vladimir Andreyuk, a resident of the Kurgan region, while driving a car, crashed into a truck on April 20, 2022. His representative, a lawyer from the Kurgan regional colleague of lawyers Grikhutsek, Sazonov, Menshchikov and Partners, Alexei Kondratiev, told Kommersant that the traffic police inspectors, deciding that the driver was in a helpless state, called an ambulance. Doctors took blood from Mr. Andreyuk, thus conducting a medical examination.

Recall that checking for alcohol by the inspector (using a breathalyzer) is called an examination. A follow-up check with a doctor, which may include a breathalyzer or a blood or urine sample, is a medical examination.

Volodymyr Andreyuk, it was also said in the complaint to the Supreme Court, was conscious after the accident and was ready to undergo an examination, but no one offered him the procedure. So legally, Mr. Kondratiev explained to Kommersant, the traffic police had no reason to send the driver for a medical examination.

These grounds, we note, are described in the relevant government decree: a doctor is sent if the driver refuses to be examined by the inspector, if he disagrees with his results, as well as if the result is negative, but there are “sufficient grounds” to believe (smell of alcohol from the mouth, slurred speech, etc. d) that the driver is drunk.

The rules contain “legal uncertainty”, concludes Mr. Andreyuk, the victim of which he became. The document allows “the possibility of arbitrary interpretation, thereby violating rights, freedoms and legitimate interests,” the lawsuit says. The procedure and grounds for sending a driver who is in a helpless state for a medical examination are not described or deciphered, Alexei Kondratyev adds. Moreover, in his opinion, it is not clear what a helpless state is. All this, the plaintiff insists, contradicts the Code of Administrative Offenses and violates the rights of persons called to account “to a fair trial based on the constitutional principles of the administration of justice – legal equality, legal certainty, objectivity.”

It should be noted that at the time of the accident, in which Vladimir Andreyuk got into, the examination rules were fixed by government decree No. 475 of 2008. From March 1, 2023, a new decree No. 1882 is in force, but the grounds for referral to a doctor are the same. Mr. Andriyuk asks to invalidate the norms of the new resolution. This will allow you to cancel the court decision and return the rights.

Arbitrary interpretation of the departmental decree does not allow, it is said in the objections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, received by the Supreme Court (“Kommersant” got acquainted with the text).

Note that this issue is partially addressed in the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 20 of 2020. It says that they are not a violation of the actions of the inspector who immediately sends the driver to the doctor after an accident in a helpless state (in case of a serious injury, for example). From the objections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, by the way, we can conclude that the inspectors, when registering an accident with Mr. Adreyuk, could make some mistakes, the police do not exclude this. However, the lawyers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs write, the assessment of the “legitimacy of the procedural actions” of specific employees in a particular case is not a matter for the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also speaks of “a set of signs” of the state of intoxication of Vladimir Andreyuk even before the accident – a gross violation of traffic rules, a refusal to stop on demand, as a result, he even had to be pursued in a patrol car.

The helpless and unconscious state of drivers occurs, as a rule, after an accident, lawyer Lev Voropaev explained: in this case, the traffic police initiates administrative proceedings under Art. 12.24 of the Code of Administrative Offenses “Violation of traffic rules, which caused minor or moderate harm to the health of the victim.” Drivers against whom a case has been initiated under this article are sent immediately to the doctor, bypassing the “purge” from the inspector. Serhiy Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement, also believes that it makes no sense to perpetuate signs of helplessness: “The problem is not with the rules, but with their application.”

Ivan Buranov