The deputy head of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of Russia, Vladimir Kuzin, spoke in favor of reducing the unpunished threshold for exceeding the allowed speed from the current 20 km / h to 10 km / h. Amendments may appear in the new version of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) of the Russian Federation. However, earlier in the State Duma they strongly opposed such an initiative, so while her fate remains open.

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs supports the idea of ​​lowering the threshold from 20 to 10 km / h. The norm can be implemented in the new code (administrative - RT. ), Which is being prepared by the government for submission to the State Duma at the beginning of next year, ”said Kuzin.

The news caused a great response in the media, the department is not the first time publicly speaking out in support of this initiative, but so far it has not been possible to implement it.

Recall now motorists are fined if they exceed speeds of 20 km / h and above. Moreover, in the range from 20 to 40 km / h the recovery is 500 rubles. With a 50% discount provided by law for those who will not delay the payment, the fine in Russia is much inferior to similar sanctions in Europe and the CIS countries - there drivers can part with a much larger sum for exceeding only a few kilometers per hour.

It is not surprising that the number of violations with the rapid development of photofixation of traffic violations is measured in tens of millions.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, last year over 87 million “letters of happiness” were written for exceeding the permitted speed, of which 80 million were for exceeding 20 to 40 km / h.

Given the rapid growth rate of the number of recorded violations, according to the results of this year, the number of fines issued to drivers is likely to exceed 100 million.

If the Ministry of Internal Affairs succeeds in achieving its goal, then, according to the amendments proposed by the department, punishment for exceeding 10-20 km / h will be in the amount of 1,500 rubles. But even if the threshold remains unchanged, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has good chances to achieve an increase in existing fines.

In particular, for an excess of 20-40 km / h, the Ministry of Internal Affairs wants to fine 3,000 rubles. In this case, with a repeated violation, it will not be possible to pay a fine at a discount.

Question on the agenda

The reduction of the unpunished threshold has long been discussed by various departments, but earlier the State Duma became a stumbling block for the initiative.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has been actively declaring its position for a long time, and since the end of 2018, the department, together with the Ministry of Transport, on behalf of the government commission for road safety, began to prepare specific initiatives to reduce the threshold for impunity.

Also, in support of this idea, the Moscow government spoke even earlier: the profile vice-mayor Maxim Liksutov has been proposing for several years to legally oblige metropolitan drivers inside the Boulevard Ring to drive no faster than 50 km / h, including by changing the unpunished threshold.

By March 1, 2019, all three departments submitted to the Russian government their proposals on this subject. Despite the lack of a formal reaction, the Cabinet of Ministers then made it clear that the arguments of the supporters of the changes look unconvincing, in particular, they failed to prove the relationship of the change in the punishable threshold with the improvement of road safety and did not analyze the consequences of such a step.

Even earlier, the State Duma opposed the initiative. According to the results of the parliamentary hearings this winter, when the heads of the concerned departments addressed the deputies, the relevant committees considered their arguments unconvincing, and the connection between lowering the threshold and improving road safety was not obvious.

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One of the main opponents of the implementation of this idea is the deputy from "United Russia" Vyacheslav Lysakov, known for a number of "automotive" initiatives and bills.

The deputy has repeatedly stated that it is wrong to consider this issue in isolation from others and the situation on the roads needs to be changed comprehensively - first of all, you need to “audit the street-road network”, deal with the legality of speed limits on the roads and check the system of photo and video recording of traffic violations, which many of the region created at the expense of private funds.

In April, another parliamentary hearing was held on this topic, and in June 2019 Lysakov said that the parliament, in the person of the transport and state building committees, officially recommended that the Russian government not to cancel the existing threshold. Deputies also sent relevant recommendations to the regions. Considering the volume of measures proposed before lowering the threshold, in fact, the State Duma postponed this initiative for an indefinite period.

Commenting on Kuzin’s statement on Wednesday, Lysakov reiterated his previous position, making it clear that nothing had changed dramatically in recent months.

“Our position, the position of the faction, is that before raising the question of reducing the unpunished speed threshold, it is necessary to conduct an audit of the road network and remove the“ feeding traps ”from there,” Lysakov told the press.

He also recalled the need to bring high-speed mode in accordance with the categories of roads.

“Why am I driving along the M9 highway to Belarus at a speed of 90 kilometers per hour, I arrive in Belarus, is there a road of the same quality and 120 there? But 120 plus ten is 130, and 90 plus 10 will be 100. Why should we go 30 kilometers less than our Belarusian brothers and we are there? It is necessary to revise the roads, remove the “feeders”, which are simply commercial tricks of the local authorities, and after that we will talk about lowering the threshold from 20 to 10, ”the deputy said.

Most likely, the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be actively discussed in the State Duma and with the adoption of a new Administrative Code at the beginning of next year. It is possible that the government and parliament will try to find a compromise, so that in the event of a significant increase in the existing fines for violating traffic rules, they will not immediately introduce a new one, which will obviously affect millions of motorists.

In any case, the government previously made it clear that they would not be in a hurry with the changes, so in the near future motorists should not be afraid of lowering the non-fined threshold.

At the same time, do not forget that driving with an unpunished speeding is now classified as a violation of the rules according to the SDA and in the event of an accident can become the basis for the driver to be found guilty.