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Amendments to traffic regulations regarding dangerous driving come into force in Russia

The amendments were drafted by the Russian Interior Ministry and approved by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Amendments to the Traffic Regulations regarding dangerous driving are coming into force in Russia on Wednesday.

The State Traffic Inspectorate told TASS the amendments were drafted by the Russian Interior Ministry and approved by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. They aim to reduce the population’s traffic accidents death rate.

Amendments

Point 2.7 of the Regulations is supplemented with the norm banning dangerous driving for the driver, which is expressed in repeated performance of one or several consecutive actions if these actions entail the creation by the driver of a situation during which his movement and/or the movement of other drivers in the same direction and at the same speed poses a threat of death of injury for people, damage for vehicles, constructions, cargoes or other material damage.

The actions include: refusal to give way to a vehicle having the right of way when changing lanes; changing lanes in heavy traffic when all lanes are busy except for turns to the left or right, U-turns, stops or obstacle avoidance; failure to maintain a safe distance to vehicles ahead; failure to maintain the side interval; hard braking unless needed to prevent a road accident; attempts to prevent other vehicles from passing.

According to First Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov, penalties can be as large as 5,000 rubles ($77).

The amendments to the Traffic Regulations take effect seven days after official publication of the Russian government’s resolution.

Putin’s viewpoint

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a session of the Presidium of the State Council on road safety on March 14 that 350,000 Russians had died in road accidents in the country over the past ten years and most of such cases had occurred through the fault of drivers. Putin said that over 3 million people have been injured over the past decade in such accidents.

An absolute majority of these road accidents occurred through the fault of drivers, the president said. The growing number of cars should not become justification for the growth of the number of road accidents in the country, Putin said.

It is necessary to achieve a radical reduction in the number of persons who are killed or injured in road accidents, the Russian president said.