No Penalty Points for Drivers Until July 1, 2022, Says Deputy Police Chief Ara Fidanian

No penalty points will be applied to drivers until July 1, 2022. This was announced by Armenia's Deputy Police Chief Ara Fidanian during a meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Defense and Security, presenting a draft of amendments to the Administrative Offenses Code before its second reading.

According to Fidanian, the changes are necessary for the effective implementation of the penalty points system for drivers and to prevent potential traffic violations. “Following the adoption of the bill, the application of penalty points for violations recorded by patrol service employees will be temporarily postponed until July 1, 2022,” Fidanian said.

Previously, penalty points would only be removed for violations recorded by cameras. Fidanian noted that traffic accidents are often caused by drivers speaking on their phones or even smoking. “We have numerous cases where accidents occur due to a driver's smoking, sometimes resulting in serious consequences,” Fidanian stressed.

It is worth mentioning that a new penalty points system has been in effect in Armenia since January 1, 2020. This system applies to violations recorded by visual equipment since January 1, and those recorded by traffic police inspectors since September 1. According to the system, every driver in Armenia is assigned 9 penalty points for violating traffic rules. If a driver accrues all 9 points within a year, their driving license is suspended for six months.