Nikol Pashinyan: Control over ensuring road safety in Armenia needs  to be toughened

ArmInfo. Road safety monitoring in Armenia needs to be toughened. This was stated on July 11 at a meeting of the RA Government by the Prime Minister of the  Republic of Armenia, commenting on the recent major traffic accidents  leading to numerous human casualties.

To recall, in an accident on July 7, three cars collided on the Zod  Bridge in the Ararat region, Toyota, and public transport  serving route Ararat-Eraskhavan.  As a result of an  accident, 6 people died, 12 people were hospitalized with various  injuries. Prior to this, as a result of an accident on a highway  Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze, a Mercedes car crashed into a roadside  barrier and caught fire. As a result of the accident, three people  died, five Armenian citizens were hospitalized in Kareli and Gori  medical centers.

The Prime Minister said that the RA Police had developed a draft law,  the main component of which would be a ban on driving motor vehicles  by malicious road violators. According to Nikol Pashinyan, the bill  is in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, currently the  schedule of its consideration is discussed at the plenary session of  the National Assembly. Prior to its adoption, as the head of the  government noted, it is necessary to hold discussions with public  organizations and civil society. In this issue, Nikol Pashinyan  continued, an integrated approach is needed, it is important to  develop a strategy and a roadmap for solving the existing problem.

Nikol Pashinyan stated that an unprecedented growth of imported cars  was recorded in 2018-2019, which leads to the emergence of new  challenges. But in any case, the Prime Minister continued, the Police  should apply the most stringent measures against unfair and malicious  violators of road traffic.  In turn, the head of the RA Police,  Valery Osipyan, said that recently there has been an increase in  traffic accidents with casualties. Thus, in 2011, 4 citizens of the  country were killed in an Artsakh street as a result of an accident  with a fire in a minibus, a similar case was registered in 2013, when  7 people died in a traffic accident. According to the head of the RA  Police, according to the situation on April 10, 2018, 1081 accidents  were reported in Armenia, as a result of which 150 people died and  2,736 people were injured.  By April 10, 2019, the number of  accidents has already reached 2203, leading to 69 victims and 3,212  injured. To a large extent, as Valery Osipyan noted, the growth in  the number of accidents was also due to the growth of imported cars.  In 2017, 38 thousand vehicles were imported into the republic, in  2018 - 73.5 thousand, for the six months of 2019 - 74.6 thousand. The  growth of imported cars leads to an increase in traffic accidents.  The Chief of Police also pointed out the presence of a problem with  the technical inspection of vehicles, which is only formally in  force.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan suggested that the owners of  cars who in fact have not passed a technical inspection are not given  insurance.

This proposal was welcomed by Nikol Pashinyan, who ordered holding  discussions on this proposal with the Central Bank of the country.