Tightening driving regulations
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, April 5
Due to the increased number of road accidents, the Government of Georgia is going to tighten driving regulations.
The Legal Issues Committee of Parliament is discussing the draft bill, according to which stricter sanctions will be introduced for drunk-driving.
A driver whose driving license was suspended for drunk-driving for 6 months, can take the driving exam again after three months and after paying a 1000 GEL penalty.
Under the current legislation, the driver’s license is suspended for 6 months and the violator has to pay a 700 GEL penalty for drunk-driving.
Moreover, the 100-point driving license system will take effect on July 1. The contactless patrolling initiative will also take effect on the same day. According to the parliamentary bill, the points system will be attributed to the driving licenses issued in Georgia as well as in foreign countries.
Each administrative offense in traffic safety sphere will result in deprivation of respective number of points and if the points are reduced to zero during the calendar year, the license will be terminated and the driver will have to apply for the exams no earlier than two months upon termination.
The number of points for the deprivation for some administrative offenses has increased and reduced for different offenses. Non-usage of the seatbelt envisaged 10 points to be taken, but this has been reduced to 5; lending the vehicle to a person under influence of alcohol entailed the deprivation of 20 points, which has now been increased to 30.
Georgia’s Deputy Interior Minister, Shalva Khutsishvili, has declared that until July 1, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) will launch an information campaign in order to inform citizens about the details of the 100-point driving license system.
A non-governmental organization (NGO), the Georgian Alliance for Safe Roads, reported several days ago that according to MIA official data, in January-February this year 905 traffic accidents were recorded, which left 84 people dead, five teenagers among them.
During these two months, a total of 1,277 people were injured in car accidents, 265 being pedestrians, 136 of whom were teenagers.
