Over 10,000 Drivers Are Operating with Suspended or Revoked Licenses, Says Sergey Ghahramanyan

It is more important and purposeful not to reduce the number of accidents but to eliminate those accidents that result in fatalities or serious bodily injuries. This was stated by Sergey Ghahramanyan, a member of the Public Council of the Police of the Republic of Armenia and co-founder of the NGO "Driver's Friend," during a conversation with NEWS.am regarding the increase in the number of accidents in the republic over the past year.

Ghahramanyan noted, "The increase in the number of accidents is a natural process because even in countries where efforts are made to reduce fatalities, an increase in accidents is not necessarily considered a tragedy. It is more important and purposeful to ensure that accidents resulting in deaths or serious injuries are eliminated. The increase in the number of accidents is not the greatest concern; what matters more is ensuring that fatalities and severe bodily injuries do not occur, which has various causes, ranging from traffic organization to vehicle conditions, technical state, driver condition, driver behavior, and also high speeds. Because if a collision occurs at a speed of 30, 40, 50 km/h compared to 70, 80, or 90 km/h, it is obviously incomparable."

He emphasized that a significant portion of fatalities occurs in accidents in rural areas, where discussing infrastructure is unwarranted, and talking about lighting is also unnecessary. When all these factors are combined with various negative phenomena, we see the results of the last 3-4 years, and looking at everything, it will be a bit difficult to shift toward the positive side," he said.

Ghahramanyan mentioned that the government places the organization of traffic on the police, yet the police only manage traffic in the capital, while this is not the case in rural areas, where local self-government bodies are responsible. He pointed out that there are very few police roadblocks in rural areas, and wrong behavior is exhibited by the public. "For example, if part of the road is damaged, the representative of the local body either does not care or lacks funds for repairs, and drivers do not adhere to safety rules, leading to their own damages since the local representative is not penalized," he said.

He noted that in recent years, the fewest fatalities were recorded in 2016 when there was strict control over seat belt usage, resulting in 267 fatal accidents that year. "The introduction of seat belts brought significant positive changes. However, the issue of alcohol consumption cannot be checked every minute. Even if the police are deficient, they cannot check the sobriety of 700,000 drivers every second," he added.

Ghahramanyan pointed out that the point system for driving should have introduced changes, but it is not functioning properly. "The lapse was due to the lack of relevant regulations implemented on the new patrol vehicles. Currently, over 10,000 drivers are operating with suspended or revoked licenses, and the automated system intended to identify them was planned but has been postponed," he stated.