Armenia to tighten controls on unlicensed drivers

ArmInfo.  Armenia will tighten controls on unlicensed drivers.  At its February 6 meeting,  the National Assembly's Defense and Security Committee approved the  first reading of amendments to the law "On Ensuring Road Safety"  submitted by the government.

Introducing the amendments, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Armen  Ghazaryan noted that driver's licenses are currently revoked for a  number of reasons: the death of the license holder, recognition of  incompetence, entry into force of a court decision revoking the  citizen's driving privileges, drug addiction, and mental health. In  the latter case, the decision is made based on a medical report.

The document proposed replacing the medical report with information  provided electronically by the Ministry of Health. The moment the  Armmed system receives information about any restrictions related to  the termination of a person's driving privilege, this information  will automatically be entered into the Ministry of Internal Affairs'  electronic registry, and the person's driving privilege will be  terminated. 

Currently, this process occurs post-factum: in the case of recorded  traffic violations, driver's license renewals, or loss. In these  situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sends a request to the  Ministry of Health. Now, the process will be reversed: if there are  any driving restrictions, the information from the Armmed system will  automatically be entered into the Ministry of Internal Affairs'  electronic registry, which will serve as the basis for terminating  the person's driving privilege.

The Deputy Minister reported that over the past four years, 2,370  cases of drivers driving without a license have been recorded. This  represents an annual average of 600 cases.