Unexpected diagnosis: how a visit to the doctor can turn out for the driver
The State Duma has adopted amendments providing for the possibility of revoking a driver's license if a motorist is found to have a medical condition in which it is impossible to drive vehicles. Doctors will be required to transmit information about such ailments detected during a medical examination or a routine visit to the clinic to the State Traffic Inspectorate. Doctors, lawyers, and experts have mixed opinions about the innovations. The details are in the Izvestia article.
Rights under the knife
The State Duma has approved amendments to the laws "On Road Safety" and "On personal Data", which expand the powers of the State Traffic Inspectorate to revoke driver's licenses. The document has been published in the legislative support system of the lower house of Parliament. According to the adopted amendments, from March 1, 2027, if during a medical examination, medical examination or medical care a driver is found to have a disease that prohibits driving or imposes restrictions on driving, doctors will be required to notify him about this, as well as enter relevant information into a single database to which employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will have access.
"In case of detection by the driver during medical examinations <...> a medical condition that is a medical contraindication to driving vehicles, a medical organization sends a notification to the driver of the vehicle and to the federal executive authority responsible for developing and implementing state policy and regulatory legal regulation in the field of internal affairs about the need to undergo an extraordinary mandatory medical examination," the text of the document says.
Upon receiving such a notification, the motorist will be required to undergo the necessary additional examination within three months. If he does not do this within the prescribed period, as well as if the diagnosis is confirmed during such an examination, the State Traffic Inspectorate will be able to revoke his driver's license.
"The right to drive vehicles, which has been terminated <...>, is restored in the presence of a medical opinion confirming the absence of medical contraindications to driving, taking into account medical restrictions on driving," the amendments say.
Without trial
The police still have the right to revoke a driver's license in case of detection of a disease that does not allow them to drive vehicles, says Sergey Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement. But according to the current legislation, a court decision is necessary for this, he emphasizes. After the new law comes into force, a court decision will not be required for this, the lawyer told Izvestia.
Currently, the legislation establishes the obligation for drivers who do not carry out professional activities in vehicle management to undergo a medical examination after the expiration of the 10-year validity period of the driver's license, the authors of the document note. This leads to the fact that motorists who have identified medical contraindications that were not previously detected continue to drive vehicles until the expiration of their rights, they state.
"Over the past five years, units of the State Traffic Inspectorate have cancelled more than 105.4 thousand driver's licenses on the basis of court decisions on the termination of the right to drive vehicles for persons with diseases that prevent safe driving. This poses a threat to road safety, life and health of citizens," the explanatory note to the bill says.
As previously reported to Izvestia by the Russian Ministry of Health, information on the results of the medical examination of drivers will be transmitted to the unified state information system in the field of healthcare (EGISZ). Currently, it records data on the results of medical examinations for the presence or absence of contraindications to gun ownership.
What ailments are not allowed to drive a car
Diagnoses in which it is impossible to drive vehicles are specified in the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2014 No. 1604 "On the lists of medical contraindications, medical indications and medical restrictions to driving a vehicle". In particular, it is prohibited for people suffering from schizophrenia, mental retardation, epilepsy, achromatopsia (color blindness), alcoholism, drug addiction and some other diseases. On September 1 of this year, a new government decree comes into force, which clarifies the codes of diseases in accordance with their international classification.
In addition to the prohibitions, the resolution lists the diagnoses under which it is allowed to drive a vehicle, but with certain conditions. For example, the use of glasses or contact lenses when visual acuity decreases, the mandatory equipment of the car with parking sensors in case of blindness of one eye, the ability to drive a vehicle only with an automatic transmission for certain types of injuries or missing limbs.
Useful for road safety
The doctors interviewed by Izvestia believe that the introduction of new ones will exclude people with dangerous diseases from traffic and improve road safety. Driving a car requires not only knowledge of a huge number of rules, but also experience and instant correct brain response, emphasizes neurologist Pavel Khoroshev.
— Such effective behavior requires full brain and mental health. Therefore, for example, behavioral deviations are a good reason to be suspended from driving," he believes.
The adoption of the amendments is a useful and necessary step to ensure road safety, Alexey Nikitin, cardiologist and head of medical projects and innovations at Invitro, told Izvestia. Such changes will minimize the number of accidents and, as a result, reduce the number of injuries and deaths on the roads, he believes.
— Drivers with illnesses that can suddenly cause loss of consciousness, disorientation, psychomotor agitation or impaired cognitive functions pose a serious danger. For example, with epilepsy with frequent seizures, driving a vehicle can be dangerous not only for other road users, but also for the driver himself," explained Alexey Nikitin.
The approved amendments will streamline the medical examination system and increase confidence in the driver's license system, he added. According to the expert, these changes strengthen the role of the medical community in ensuring road safety, making the process of medical examination of drivers more meaningful and having real consequences.
"This should encourage doctors to be even more responsible about examinations," Nikitin is sure.
At the same time, he explained that diseases can have different degrees of severity and this should be taken into account. For example, a person with mild depression, under the supervision of a doctor and receiving adequate therapy, can safely drive a car, the expert noted.
The new law is especially useful for older drivers, because often in old age, the assessment of health status, including cognitive functions, may require more careful attention, says psychiatrist Alina Govenko.
Criteria are important
The current prohibitions and restrictions on driving vehicles for medical reasons mainly consist of either obvious physiological defects such as missing limbs, or neuropsychiatric and drug-related diagnoses, Sergei Radko notes. A specialist doctor specializing in these ailments can reliably establish that a person suffers from schizophrenia, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism or drug addiction. During a routine examination, medical examination, and appointment with a therapist, health workers can only indirectly suspect a "forbidden" disease in a person and send him for an additional, more in-depth examination to an appropriate specialist, he emphasizes.
— For this, the most clear and detailed criteria are extremely important, according to which the driver will be sent for such a study, and information about this will be entered into the database and be the basis for revoking the rights. This will avoid situations in which a person who comes to the clinic with acute respiratory infections or high blood pressure will have to undergo additional examinations, just because the doctor who received him "thought something was wrong," Sergei Radko told Izvestia.
Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Presidium of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, shares a similar point of view. The adopted amendments should exclude from traffic those who are medically unable to drive vehicles. But at the same time, it is necessary to clearly define the grounds for this, he emphasizes.
— In addition, the most transparent and controlled mechanism for sending a driver for additional examinations must be developed in order to exclude the corruption component, — Igor Morzharetto told Izvestia.
According to him, it is also necessary that not only public but also private clinics transfer information to a single database, the expert believes. Now a person suffering from alcoholism can receive help in a private medical center and at the same time not be officially registered in a drug dispensary, Igor Morzharetto noted.
A neglected case
The introduction of new rules will certainly make it possible to exclude from traffic those who should not drive a car, Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of Za Rulem magazine, is convinced. But at the same time, it is likely that drivers will simply become less likely to see doctors for fear of being left without a license, he believes.
— Let's say a person has a pain somewhere. Knowing that a visit to a doctor could potentially result in additional hassle and possible revocation of his rights, it is highly likely that he will self-medicate and try to get rid of the disease with "folk remedies." Otherwise, it will act on the principle of "it will pass by itself," Maxim Kadakov told Izvestia.
In this case, there is a high probability of not noticing some dangerous disease in time, which does not lead to a ban on driving, the editor-in-chief of Za Rudem believes.
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