MOSCOW, September 25 (Itar-Tass) — After the Saturday road accident, in which the drunk driver rammed into a bus stop at the speed of 200 kilometres per hour and killed five children from the children’s asylum, their tutor and her husband, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev demanded to toughen responsibility for road accidents committed due to drunk driving.
The Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported that an awful road accident, which occurred in Moscow last Saturday, raised an immediate response in the authorities. The United Russia deputies proposed to toughen responsibility for similar crimes. The prime minister supports this measure. “Perhaps, we should ponder over how to make criminal responsibility tougher for such crimes. Even with such horrible consequences the current responsibility is quite moderate. It should be tougher,” Medvedev said at a meeting with the deputy prime ministers on Monday.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily recalled that the maximum term of nine years in prison is envisaged for such crimes in Russia. The premier gave instructions to scrutinize the legislation for making responsibility tougher for drunk driving. Medvedev noted at the meeting that this is not only a longer term in prison, but also the life-long stripping of a driving license.
However, ‘the zero pro mille’ should be cancelled, but the responsibility should be toughened, Vyacheslav Lysakov insisted. The deputy noted that the criterion of 0.2 pro mille should be restored, “though the full guarantee should be provided that we punish a really drunk person, rather than a person who was drinking kefir yesterday.” There is some fair information from the medics that some medicines, which people sick with diabetes take, show up to 0.2 pro mille, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. The same reaction can be expected from antibiotics and a just acute infection in the organism affects the results of measurement.
Chairman of the Russian Union of Motorists Viktor Pokhmelkin believes that such tragedies have right several reasons, the Komsomolskaya Gazeta daily reported. “One of them that a car in Russia is not an instrument for movement, but a symbol of social status. Many “car owners in the first generation” consider themselves as skilled drivers. They take the pedestrians as a regrettable obstacle on the road. As sober drivers are running down thousands of pedestrians on the roads! The majority of our car owners just do not realize that getting behind the wheel they are actually responsible for the lives of other people. The second reason for the tragedies is corruption in the road police. It is an open secret that a driving license can be easily bought, even if you cannot drive at all,” he underlined.