Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Chairman of the Road Traffic Safety Commission Marat Khusnullin in an interview with Vedomosti spoke about his intention to fight the statistics of deaths in “drunken” road accidents.
“I believe that it is necessary to reduce the amount of permissible blood alcohol per mille while driving,” the Deputy Prime Minister told Vedomosti. – After all, there is a direct dependence of mortality and accidents on the number of ppm blood alcohol. The accident rate for those who drank a glass of beer or so is minimal. Those who got behind the wheel with one ppm of alcohol in their blood are already potential death row. Therefore, these things need to be regulated. “
The struggle for “ppm” was active in the early 2010s. Since 2008, the norms of the permissible level of alcohol in the driver’s blood (0.3 ppm) and in the air exhaled by him (0.15 ppm), introduced under President Vladimir Putin, have been in effect in Russia. But in 2009 the new President Dmitry Medvedev proposed to abolish these norms: “We know how they drink in our country. First a glass, like you can now. Then two, three, and then – okay, let’s go. ” The zero ppm rule did not last too long, despite Medvedev’s disagreement.
Vyacheslav Lysakov, a State Duma deputy from United Russia, head of the Freedom of Elections motorists movement, proposed in 2013 a bill to return the minimum alcohol content (0.16 mg of alcohol in 1 liter of exhaled air, 0.35 g of alcohol in 1 liter of blood ). During a speech in the State Duma in the same year, he was supported by Putin, at that time the prime minister, and soon the law was adopted, Kommersant wrote.
The problem of road deaths in this case will be solved by one way – the impossibility of avoiding responsibility, says the vice-president of the National Automobile Union Anton Shparin. In addition, the level of 0.3 ppm, which is currently in effect, is very low, lower than in many European countries, and only guarantees leveling [последствий] instrumental errors, says Shaparin: “Even a small amount of alcohol immediately leads to much higher levels of alcohol in the blood. Therefore, the revision of this figure will only contribute to a new increase in corruption on the road. “
Also, as Khusnullin told Vedomosti, a reduction of the non-penalty threshold for speeding from 20 km / h to 10 km / h is being discussed. “When you exceeded the threshold by 10 km / h and you were fined, it’s extremely unpleasant,” said Khusnullin. “But as chairman of the road safety commission, I must say that we lose more than 60,000 people a year on the roads.”
“There is no unequivocal decision either on speed or on alcohol,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.
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