According to the new rules, the traffic police gets a new noose for the drivers

Irina Mishina

The traffic police will now be able to receive from medical institutions all the information about patients whose illnesses are incompatible with driving. Doctors will have to upload examination data into a single electronic system.

The list of diseases that prevent driving a motor vehicle has been around for a long time. Now it includes mainly mental illness, eye disease, musculoskeletal system, absence of limbs or their serious diseases. But this Database didn't actually work.

“For a long time I was a member of the working group on traffic safety under the Russian government, and there was no way we could make the Database on the health of drivers really operational. She did not make her way with respect to the traffic police. How is it in other countries? In Germany, for example, a person comes to the police, shows his passport and says that he would like to get a driver's license. The traffic safety officer enters the Database and says "you can" or "you can't." He does not know the specific diagnosis, the database automatically sorts people with and without contraindications. We should have the same database. The list of contraindications should be determined by the Ministry of Health. But this is not working for us yet, and there are big doubts that it will work in the near future. We have a million people who drive without OSAGO, and the cameras can’t learn how to fix this in any way”, - Igor Morzharetto , an auto expert, tells NI.

Now non-professional drivers undergo a medical examination every ten years, after the expiration of their certificates. But in 10 years, anything can happen to a person, he can get sick, and the traffic police will not know this. It is assumed that the exchange of data between medical institutions and the traffic police will make the movement safer.

As we have learned, it is assumed that under the new law, the traffic police will be able to automatically deprive the rights of drivers with medical contraindications. It is not known exactly how the new database will function, but it is assumed that if a driver has medical contraindications for driving, the inspectors themselves will see this in the database, cancel his rights and send him for an extraordinary examination. If the diagnosis is confirmed, the person will be banned from driving. If the driver avoids such an inspection, the traffic police will decide to terminate the ability to drive the vehicle. Automotive experts are of the opinion that there may be a merger of the databases of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in just the past 5 years, the State Traffic Inspectorate has deprived almost 105,000 drivers of their rights for medical reasons through the courts. But the traffic police had to independently identify such citizens. Theoretically, the new law should make this process easier. But the question arises whether it will become more transparent. According to Anton Shaparin, vice-president of the National Automobile Union, "drivers with completely different diagnoses, including addictions, receive certificates from private medical institutions, and they are issued a driver's license." “Now any doctor will be able to say to the patient: “Dear friend, I see signs of tremor in you, you should probably send you for an additional commission, and after that see, maybe you need to revoke your driver’s license.” Of course, this creates the most serious prospects for corruption”, - said Anton Shaparin, Vice President of the National Automobile Union.

In addition to concerns about corruption, the new rules have caused a storm of discontent among disabled people who drive vehicles. So, for many people with amputated lower limbs, a car is perhaps the only solution to problems with traveling long distances.

“Taking children to school, bringing them back, going to the store - all this is impossible for me without a car. This is my main help in life”, - disabled person Natalia Volodina, whose lower limb was amputated, tells NI.

As it became known, the Federation Council plans to achieve an adjustment to the government decree, which prohibits amputees from driving. The ban, according to the Federation Council, should be lifted to ensure the rights of people with disabilities. According to the supporters of this initiative, the legislation does not take into account that modern prostheses allow driving a vehicle with almost no restrictions. As the traffic police explained to us, they are, in principle, ready to issue driver's licenses to citizens without limbs, if the mechanism of medical examination is thought out. Representatives of the Ministry of Health still treat this idea with a grain of salt, but they promise to "work through the issue".