Which Violations Will Lead to Points Being Deducted

The National Assembly is discussing a bill proposing amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations, which suggests increasing the penalty points assigned to individuals with a driving license from 9 to 13 points over a year.

Main presenter and MP from the ruling Civil Contract party, Armen Khachatryan, stated that there are more than 100 traffic rule violations, and only 28 of these result in points being deducted.

He announced that with this amendment, points for 7 violations have been increased to maintain proportionality, while the points remain the same for 20 violations. Khachatryan listed the 7 violations where points have been raised:

• Violation of glass transparency rules: If the violation is recorded again after being documented once, the driver's score will decrease by 3 points.
• Not fastening seat belts: 1 penalty point will become 1.5 points.
• Using a phone: 1 penalty point will become 1.5 points.
• Crossing the dividing lane: 2 penalty points will become 3 points.
• Leaving the lane of incoming traffic: 3 penalty points will become 4 points.
• Driving under the influence: 4 penalty points will become 5 points.
• Using tobacco while driving: 1.5 penalty points will become 2 points.

“No changes have been made for the remaining 20 violations. After discussing with drivers, for double parking, we changed 0.5 points to 0.25 points, and we didn't make any changes even in this regard,” added the MP.

If the bill is fully passed in the second reading, it will come into effect on May 1.

Member of the “Armenia” faction, Gegham Nazaryan, inquired why drunk individuals are not stripped of their driving rights. Armen Khachatryan responded, “For driving under the influence, a driver is deprived of their license for one year, but there is a limit; after that, a fine applies, and the points for penalty have increased from 4 to 5.”

He noted that the intention of the bill is to regulate social relations using minimal coercive measures by the state. “If it is possible to achieve the desired outcome with reduced administrative measures and coercive actions, then we need to reduce these coercive mechanisms. I believe that the result of 13 points will not deteriorate the traffic situation, and we will not experience an increase in traffic accidents,” he stated.

Presenting statistics, Khachatryan noted that in 2024, there were 4,814 recorded traffic accidents resulting in deaths and injuries, with 333 fatalities and 6,116 injuries. “Compared to 2023, the number of accidents has decreased by 300, and the number of deaths by 45. We have never had such figures before,” emphasized Khachatryan.