The State Duma rejected a bill that would have provided punishment for “dangerous driving”

The State Duma rejected the bill providing for a fine of up to 10 thousand rubles. or deprivation of license for “dangerous driving.” This term was included in the traffic rules back in 2016 to combat reckless drivers and fans of aggressive driving, but punishment for such an offense has not yet appeared. They tried to introduce it several times, but the State Duma rejected all attempts. The main argument of legislators is that the concept of “dangerous driving” has turned out to be too difficult to understand and enforce, so it needs to be changed.

Amendments to the Administrative Code were introduced by the LDPR faction in July 2023. Deputies proposed introducing a new article “Deliberate dangerous driving”, and a fine of 5 thousand rubles. For repeated violations within a year, it was proposed to impose a fine of 5–10 thousand rubles. or deprivation of a driver’s license for up to one year.

The term “dangerous driving” let us remind you, was introduced into the traffic rules in 2016 at the initiative of the government. The idea was to punish aggressive drivers who, for example, play checkers on the road, brake sharply in front of another car (in driving slang this is called “teaching”), or perform other dangerous maneuvers of this kind. It was assumed that the punishment would then be enshrined in the Administrative Code, but problems arose with this.

The government’s draft amendments to the code were adopted in the first reading in 2017, after which they were frozen.

After a discussion with lawyers, the Duma Committee on State Construction concluded that the term “dangerous driving” is too difficult to understand – it is a cumbersome paragraph listing all possible maneuvers that fall under the concept. This may lead to “its broad interpretation when considering cases,” which was the main reason for the rejection of government amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses in April 2023.

The LDPR nevertheless decided to insist on sanctions. It is necessary to eliminate the legal gap when a ban on dangerous driving exists, but there is no responsibility for it, explained the head of the social policy committee Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR) on Thursday in the State Duma.

“Aggressive drivers have not gone away, they provoke accidents, force other motorists into oncoming traffic with their maneuvers, create unbearable traffic conditions,” he said. “In the West, administrative arrest is used for this.”

At the same time, Mr. Nilov agrees that the criteria for “dangerous driving” in the rules were very vague, so he proposed punishing drivers, firstly, in the presence of video evidence and, secondly, only by court decision: fines for “dangerous driving” through automatic cameras no need to take it out.

However, the deputies were not convinced by these arguments. Member of the Duma Committee on State Construction Yuri Petrov (United Russia) said that the concept of the amendments is not supported. In the conclusion of the committee, the deputies repeated the position announced when the government amendments were rejected: the term “dangerous driving” contains “an element of legal uncertainty.” The issue of establishing a sanction can be considered only after the terminology is clarified, but no amendments have been received yet, the conclusion says. The government also opposed the LDPR proposals.

Let us recall that there is an order from President Vladimir Putin to the government and the Public Chamber to prepare proposals for “improving” traffic rules and submit them to the Kremlin by April 1. Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs previously stated that they had already begun this work, but the details are still unknown. Judging by earlier statements made by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and the Ministry of Transport, the departments are opposed to any radical reforms of traffic rules, and any changes are called for to be made after a broad discussion (including regarding dangerous driving). Member of the Public Chamber Alexander Kholodov, commenting on the situation to Kommersant, noted that the issue is still debatable and, perhaps, the term “dangerous driving” is not needed in the traffic rules at all.

Ivan Buranov