Rules for testing drivers for intoxication will be studied by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

The relevant rules currently used by the traffic police were reproached for «legal uncertainty».

Current rules checking motorists for intoxication will be studied by the Supreme Court. Their legitimacy was called into question in the course of consideration of one case of a traffic accident that occurred in the Kurgan region. The driver, who was found guilty of this accident, filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the Supreme Court: he believes that due to “legal uncertainty” and “the possibility of arbitrary interpretation” of the rules, traffic police officers can send motorists for checks to doctors at their discretion.

According to the current terms used by the department, checking for the presence of alcohol in the exhalation of a traffic police officer is called an examination and is carried out using a breathalyzer. And a follow-up check with a doctor, for which both a breathalyzer and a blood/urine test can be used, is considered a medical examination.

Kommersant got acquainted with the details of the case. The driver of a passenger car, who lives in the Kurgan region, crashed into a truck; The accident happened on April 20, 2022. According to his lawyer, traffic police inspectors decided that the driver was in a helpless state and called an ambulance. As a result, the doctors took blood from the driver of the passenger car and conducted a medical examination using this sample.

According to the information received by the Supreme court complaint of a motorist, after the accident he was conscious and was ready to undergo an examination, but no one offered him this procedure. Accordingly, the traffic police had no legal grounds to send the driver for a medical examination.

The government decree states that the list of grounds for sending drivers to the doctor includes: refusal of an examination by a traffic police officer, disagreement of the motorist with his results, and also a negative result, but if there are “sufficient grounds” for the inspector to consider that the motorist is drunk: the smell of alcohol from the mouth, redness of the skin, slurred speech, etc.

According to the plaintiff's lawyer, the procedure and grounds for sending helpless drivers for a medical examination are not described or deciphered in the current rules. In addition, it is not clear from the document what exactly is meant by a helpless state. This not only violates the rights of drivers “to a fair trial,” but also contradicts the Code of Administrative Offenses, the party that applied to the Supreme Court believes.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not believe that the current departmental decree allows arbitrary interpretation. The department emphasized that in the case under consideration, the traffic police officers revealed a «set of signs» of the driver's drunken state even before the accident: they included a gross violation of traffic rules, a refusal to stop on demand, and the need to pursue him in a patrol car.

Lawyer Lev Voropaev noted that the helpless and unconscious state of drivers occurs, most often, after an accident. In such cases, the victims, as a rule, are sent immediately to the doctor without the “purge” stage at the traffic police officer.