“Behind the wheel. Russian Federation”
Today, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev “demanded to expedite the adoption of a bill to tighten liability for traffic violations while intoxicated. He stated this today at a meeting with deputy prime ministers. " Today, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev “demanded to expedite the adoption of a bill to tighten liability for traffic violations while intoxicated. He stated this today at a meeting with deputy prime ministers."
“The day does not pass without reports of the deaths of people, including, unfortunately, children, under the wheels of drunk car owners,” D. Medvedev emphasized. “We need to return to this topic and take measures aimed at combating alcohol while driving, and not calculate the per mille that you can or cannot take before you drive.”
The prime minister plans to discuss government amendments to the bill prepared by the United Russia faction so that United Russia members in the State Duma accelerate its adoption in the parliament.
“Do not calculate the ppm” is an obvious “face” for United Russia deputies in the State Duma. The EP bill was criticized by experts and the wide automotive community, including specialized media, including the site “Behind the Wheel. RF”. The prime minister is abusing his status position - he ignores the objective data that the professionals cite.
We agree, as always agreed: for drunken drivers, no punishment is harsh, especially if people suffer from road accidents. No sane person will justify the driver, because of which on January 13, according to the Russian traffic police website, several people were injured, including two children: the person responsible for the accident had a blood alcohol content of 1.2 ppm. During the New Year holidays there were 134 “drunk” road accidents, 15 people were killed and almost 200 people were injured. Many hundreds of responses to our publications and the results of readers' polls “Behind the Wheel. Russian Federation” give the right to say that everyone will support tougher penalties for the truly guilty. But the same polls and responses require a legal tool with which to distinguish the guilty from the innocent.
A zero indicator during an alcohol survey of drivers cannot be the legislative norm, since the conclusions of scientists all over the world, confirmed in convincing experiments, cannot be neglected:
- even an alcohol-sensitive person cannot be considered “intoxicated” if 0.2 or less ppm is found in his blood: reactions do not worsen, the behavior does not change.
- not a single measuring device, including certified breathalysers of car inspectors, is immune from distortion of the result by up to 10%.
