Drunk drivers to face lifetime ban from sitting behind wheel, Russia warns, in new bid to cut number of deaths on country’s roads

Drunk drivers are set to face new penalties under proposed legislation to be introduced later this year, which could potentially impose tough lifelong bans on convicted offenders from ever again getting back behind the wheel.

Moscow’s Kommersant reported on Tuesday, during a meeting of the government commission on road safety, that Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin instructed the Internal Affairs, Health, and Justice ministries to back legislation that will up the penalties for drunk driving by November 1.

The new laws, understood to be unveiled next month, may not only mean a life behind bars for repeat offenders of drunk driving, but anyone found with a level of alcohol in their blood that exceeds the maximum allowed by the government (0.16mg of alcohol found in a breathalyzer test or 0.3g found detected in the blood) could lose the right to drive a car, boat, train or plane. Those caught driving over the legal limit could also lose their rights to hold a gun license.

“Sitting behind the wheel in such a state, a person poses a threat to the lives of other travellers, so I have instructed to consider the possibility of toughening penalties, up to criminal punishment,” Khusnullin said.

Other Russian services and ministerial departments, such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state regulators, said the new laws should be pushed further, broadening the legislation to “create a single mechanism to restrict” the right to operate any type of transport.

The news of the impending laws comes after reports that the fatality rate on Russia’s roads due to drunk driving is decreasing at an unsatisfactory pace. “The mortality rate on the roads with the participation of drunken drivers has decreased, but at a much lower rate than the mortality rate in accidents not related to drunkenness while driving,” Khusnullin told Kommersant. In 2020 there were nearly 15.6 thousand drunk driving-related accidents across the country.

Since 2013, Russia has progressively tightened legislation designed to reduce the number of drunk driving incidents. Then in 2018, a new law allowed authorities to measure the levels of alcohol in the blood for people who could not take a breathalyzer test. A year later, the maximum prison sentence for drunk driving was increased from nine to 15 years. Since then, laws have been toughened for repeat offenders, meaning drivers who had previously been caught for the same crime can now face three years behind bars.

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