A simple matter: how will the driver examination procedure change

The changes proposed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the rules for examining drivers should reduce the number of "drunk" accidents, members of the Public Chamber and experts believe. However, additional criteria for assessing the condition of motorists and tests for the drug content in drivers' saliva may be fraught with certain difficulties, experts say. The details are in the Izvestia article.

Additional criteria

Over the past year, according to the State Traffic Inspectorate, 11,028 accidents (-4%) involving drivers in a state of intoxication occurred on Russian roads. Participants in another 2,360 (-3.7%) car accidents refused to undergo a medical examination. In addition, about 223,000 administrative cases were initiated against drunk motorists.

Despite the decrease in the number of accidents involving drivers in a state of intoxication, the problem of "drunk" accidents is still quite acute, according to the General Directorate for Road Safety The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The proposals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs concerning changes in the rules for examining drivers for intoxication add another criterion to the already existing signs of intoxication — the presence of alcohol vapor in exhaled air or narcotic drugs in saliva, said Police Colonel Andrei Klimenko, head of the Law enforcement Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, at a round table in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. He noted that the use of technical means excludes a subjective assessment and will be another reason for removing the driver from driving a vehicle.

— The use of technical means will minimize doubts about the objectivity of police officers. We emphasize that the rejection of the new proposed checks will not entail any administrative responsibility for the driver," he said.

Andrey Klimenko noted the preventive orientation of the proposed innovations. The driver should understand that he can be checked for sobriety anywhere and at any time, he stressed.

"Our task is to exclude from traffic those who got behind the wheel in a state of intoxication," said the head of the law enforcement department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. He recalled that last year, a social campaign "Your measure is 0 ppm" was held in 11 regions of the country, aimed at reducing the number of accidents involving drunk drivers.

Foreign experience

Special tests that allow for preliminary testing for the presence of alcohol or narcotic substances in the body are a common global practice, said Alexander Kholodov, Deputy chairman of the commission of the Russian Public Chamber for cooperation with Public Health Organizations. At the same time, the refusal of such a check abroad threatens the driver with serious consequences, he stressed.

— For example, in Thailand and France, such a refusal is automatically equated to driving under the influence of alcohol with the application of appropriate sanctions to the driver. In the United States, police officers in this case have the right to conduct compulsory testing of a motorist with blood collection for analysis," said Alexander Kholodov.

The vast majority of drivers will agree to such preliminary sobriety checks without unnecessary questions, member of the Public Chamber, Chairman of the All-Russian Society of Motorists Valery Soldunov is sure. However, he stressed, it is important that such tests and inspections are extremely transparent, fair and understandable for both drivers and car inspectors.

— It is necessary that the regulations and rules for conducting these studies are spelled out as clearly as possible in the regulatory documents, — he noted.

Expensive and not ours

One of the main difficulties is the high cost of both the parting itself and the consumables for conducting tests, Alexander Kholodov believes.

— The cost of a high-quality and accurate device that allows rapid analysis of the content of narcotic substances in saliva reaches several thousand dollars. At the same time, one study costs about 3 thousand rubles. This is a very serious burden on the budget," he said.

An equally serious problem is the lack of domestic equipment. For example, as Elena Shishko, Deputy head of Roszdravnadzor, told the round table, the list of certified measuring instruments that can be used by Traffic police officers to monitor sobriety currently includes 28 devices.

—Of these, 25 are foreign—made products and only three are Russian—made," she noted.

According to Anatoly Evstigneev, CEO of Fortuna Plus (which sells medical equipment), there are already breathalyzers on the market that are similar to foreign ones, but produced in the EAEU countries and have Russian certificates. But there are no domestic devices capable of detecting narcotic substances in saliva yet, he said.

Not everything is visible

Another potential problem is the difficulty of rapid tests detecting certain types of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, experts say. As Elena Shishko admits, in some cases the medical industry simply cannot keep up with new types of drugs.

Alexander Kholodov agrees with her. He cited fentanyl as an example. Studies using various portable devices conducted in the state of Minnesota (USA) did not reveal its presence in the human body, while laboratory tests on stationary equipment found this substance.

— There is also a high probability of both false positive and false negative results for a number of narcotic drugs when conducting research with portable analyzers, — he said.

The issue of the driver taking medicines containing certain narcotic or psychotropic substances remains unresolved, said the deputy chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for interaction with the Public Health Service. Moreover, this issue is acute all over the world: the tests carried out assume only a qualitative analysis based on the principle of "whether or not" there is a prohibited substance in the human body.

—Quantification is a global problem,— said Alexander Kholodov.