New Procedures for Testing Driver Sobriety Introduced

Significant changes have been made to the procedures for determining the sobriety of drivers. Specifically, examinations of a driver's sobriety based on a citizen's application will now only be conducted through urine and/or blood tests taken from the driver. This decision was made during today’s government session on August 11, as part of a package of unreported issues.

According to the existing regulations, Article 126 of the Administrative Offenses Code of Armenia stipulates administrative penalties for operating a vehicle under the influence as well as for avoiding an examination to determine sobriety in accordance with established procedures. However, police report that there are frequent incidents where drivers, initially found to be obviously under the influence based on breath samples, subsequently visit a medical facility and pass a sobriety examination through the same method.

The medical facility does not issue a report through technical means during the breathalyzer examination, and based on the report made by the relevant physician, the driver is often considered sober or within permissible alcohol limits, while police records note a significantly higher blood alcohol content from the initial breath test.

The justification for the new proposal states that decisions made by police officers in such circumstances are frequently overturned in court due to insufficient evidence, notably when comparing the medical facility’s report against the technical device’s report from the police officer. The driver submits the medical facility's examination report during the appeal process days later, preventing administrative bodies or courts from verifying the authenticity of the report provided by the medical facility, allowing doctors to assert their report's contents without any opportunity for verification.

This practice enables offending drivers to evade penalties, and both theoretically and practically, it is challenging to prove the negligence of the medical professional involved.

Under the current regulations, samples taken for sobriety determination (excluding air tests) are kept at the medical facility for a period of eight months from the date of sample collection. In cases of appeals against examination results and/or the acts based on those results, samples (excluding air tests) are retained until a final decision is made based on the complaint.

According to police, with the adoption of this project, doctors will no longer be able to record findings that do not correspond to reality, given that preserved samples in case of doubt can be sent for examination to determine alcohol content in blood or urine.

With the enactment of this project, law enforcement expects a reduction in the ability to evade administrative penalties for violations, leading to a decrease in cases of driving under the influence and enhancing the effectiveness of road safety.