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.