The traffic police wants to check on alcohol everyone. Without witnesses and protocols

The Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to change the rules for inspecting drivers and wants to obtain permission to conduct preliminary checks for intoxication using a non-contact alcohol detector or paper narcotics for express analysis of saliva “News”referring to the draft government decree.

This will be called a “preliminary check of drivers”, and those are entitled to refuse it. Today, inspectors are guided by five signs of intoxication: the smell of alcohol from the mouth, instability of the posture, speech disturbance, a sharp change in the color of the skin of the face or behavior that does not correspond to the situation. If the signs are not obvious, but the inspector still sees that something is wrong with the person, in this case express tests will help. Moreover, witnesses are not needed for this, documents will not be required, the study will be purely informative. If rapid testing yields a positive result, the driver will be referred for a medical examination.

Rapid tests will allow you to check a larger number of drivers, as the number of drunk and drug addicts driving a traffic police is a concern. According to the agency, for 11 months of 2019, 131.8 thousand accidents occurred in Russia, and in 9.8% of cases, drivers who were intoxicated became the culprits.

Experts believe that such checks could have a beneficial effect on road safety. However, they bear corruption risks and contradict the presumption of innocence, because it turns out that any of the drivers can be considered a traffic violator.

The Federation Council shares the concern of the traffic police with a large number of drunk drivers at the wheel and advocates for a new system, RIA Novosti writes. However, before introducing it, one should study whether the constitutional rights of citizens are violated, senators say.

Photo: Andrey Nikerichev / AGN Moscow