No concessions!
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is against the proposal to soften the punishment for drunk driving
The department cites statistics: over the past 7 years, there have been over 3,000 accidents involving drunk drivers in the country, in which about 4,500 people have been injured. In addition, Kazakhstan does not have the harshest sanctions - in a number of countries, huge fines are issued and licenses are revoked for 10 years, or even for life. Issues of ensuring road safety and preventing road accidents were discussed on Tuesday during a round table in the Senate.
Following Majilis member Nikolai ARSYUTIN, who stated last week that depriving a driver's license for 7 years for driving while intoxicated is too severe a punishment, the issue was raised by Senator Nauryzbai BAIKADAMOV.
- Article 608 of the Code of Administrative Offences should be revised taking into account public resonance and economic factors. When meeting with the population, citizens, as well as pensioners who work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, often raise this issue, - said the deputy.
In response, the Chairman of the Administrative Police Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Kaisar SULTANBAYEV stated that, despite the toughening of penalties for drunk driving, the number of such offenses is not decreasing. Thus, in the period from 2018 to 2024, 128,000 drunk drivers were detained.
- The position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs today is as follows: there is no need to make amendments (to Article 608 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. - L.T.). We believe that the current legislation is correct, liability must be strict! Recently, over 7,000 people voted on social networks whether this norm should be relaxed. 32 percent of respondents believe that the law should be left as is, - said Sultanbaev.
He referred to international practice. For example, in Japan, for drunk driving, a driver is deprived of his driving license for life and must pay a fine of 10,000 dollars.
And if there were passengers in the car, then each of them is fined $3,000 for getting into the car with a drunk driver.
In Saudi Arabia, such a violation of rights is punishable by 10 years of deprivation of rights, and also by flogging. In Germany, the fine is 3,000 euros, in the US state of Illinois they fine 25,000 dollars, and in Ukraine, along with the fine, the car is confiscated.
- We believe that it is wrong to increase fines. Many cannot pay them due to the economic situation, we must understand this. But in general, liability should be left as is, - the head of the Interior Ministry committee summed up.
At the same time, he noted that since the beginning of 2025, the ministry has received about 7,500 requests from citizens asking to soften the penalty of Article 608 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. There are also particularly persistent ones: one citizen sent an appeal as many as 350 times!
Meanwhile, the deputy chairman of the committee on legal statistics and special records of the Prosecutor General's Office, Ruslan ALKENOV, reported that it is proposed to proportionally reduce the speed limit on suburban highways.
- There were three accidents on the bridge between Kostanay and Tobol in 2023, one of them fatal. The speed limit was reduced from 90 to 60 kilometers per hour. As a result, there were no accidents at this location last year, - he gave a real example.
Meanwhile, Senator Nurlan BEKNAZAROV, citing data from the Prosecutor General's Office, reported that in 2024 the number of road accidents increased by 98.9 (!) percent and amounted to 31,597 cases. The number of people injured in accidents increased by 109 percent, to 40,873 people, and the number of fatalities increased by 1.4 percent and amounted to 2,579 cases.
Of particular concern is the increase in the number of children injured in road accidents: by 133.7 percent - from 4,342 to 10,149. And the number of children killed in road accidents increased by 3.5 percent - from 317 to 328.
Leila TASTANOVA, drawing by Igor KIYKO, Astana
Related links:
“Drank, got behind the wheel and are free?”, “Vremya” from 22.2.2025
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