KS will not find out whether the Code of Administrative Offenses to punish the drivers of motor blocks for a booze
The Constitutional Court (KS) did not consider the request for verification of Article 12.8 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, which prescribes a punishment for drunk driving. The audit was requested by one of the peace after the traffic police wanted to punish a citizen caught drunk at the wheel of a walk -behind tractor – a two -wheeled unit for garden work and the cultivation of the Earth. The judge saw the « unclear » in the norms of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which does not allow to determine whether the motorized car is a vehicle. The KS found that the magistrate court could solve this issue independently. The expert confirms the ambiguity of law enforcement practice.
The refusal determination of the Constitutional Court, the text of which was familiarized with Kommersant, concerns the request of the justice of the peace of one of the judicial sections of the Mining -Mary Judicial District of the Republic of Mari El. The judge received from the traffic police the case file for a citizen, which was detained by inspectors on July 28, 2024 at the wheel of the Lifan motornote with an attached trailer and a equipped driver’s place. Motoblock, recall, is a two -wheeled unit for agricultural work with a capacity of 7-10 liters. p., to which you can attach a trailer, according to the instructions, it is impossible to travel on it on public roads, but many drivers violate this ban. There is no statistics on this subject. Inspectors asked the driver to undergo a intoxication check, the alcometer showed alcohol maintaining in a volume of 1 mg/l (that is, 6.2 times more than the most acceptable norm). The traffic police determined the motorcycle block as a “self -propelled machine”, and the person who controls them as a vehicle driver. The police officer drew up the protocol and sent materials to the court, as expected, the court had to punish the citizen under article 12.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for driving vehicles.
But the magistrate court concluded that there is no “uniform approach to qualifying the actions of the person who controls the motorcycle unit”: it is not clear whether this can be considered a vehicle for technical characteristics and purpose. As a result, a request was left for the Constitutional Court to verify the constitutionality of Article 12.8 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, which, according to the court, and contains “unclear”, which does not allow it to make a decision. The proceedings in the case, the cause of the request, is suspended.
CS did not accept a request for consideration. The published definition says that the justice of the peace could independently evaluate all the circumstances of the case in order to establish whether a specific motorcycle block falls under the term “mechanical vehicle”.
The KS also indicated that earlier in the practice of the same magistrate from Mari El there was already a case when the driver of the motorcycle unit refused to check for intoxication, the traffic police wanted to deprive him of his rights, but the court did not begin to do this, since the garden equipment was not a vehicle.
The trips of citizens on motor blocks to roads regularly become the subject of proceedings with the traffic police and the courts. In some cases, drivers reached the Supreme Court (Sun), trying to appeal the decisions made by lower courts on punishment for drunk driving. One of the latter was carried out in January 2024, then the Armed Forces defended the traffic police and recognized the deprivation of rights legal.
Viktor Travin, President of the Board of Legal Protection of Car owners, confirms: the practice of punishing the drivers of motor blocks is really contradictory, there is no uniformity now. Some of the judges, he explains, refer to the notes to Article 12.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which says that a vehicle with an engine of more than 50 cubic meters is considered a vehicle. cm and maximum speed of more than 50 km/h. In such cases, drivers are not punished. Other courts are still trying to hold citizens to justice. “In any case, you can’t travel on such equipment on the road, even if there is a seat. This is stated in the instructions, ”emphasizes Viktor Travin.
Certain clarity to the situation should have been amended by the SDA developed by the Ministry of Transport back in 2024. They prohibit traffic on roads « means and mechanisms, the requirements for the movement of which are not established or in respect of which state registration has not been carried out. » This category is also included in garden motoblocks. The amendments were discussed on regulation.gov.ru, since then, their further fate has been unknown.
