This time, citizen V, a resident of the Vologda region, was “unlucky.” the village of Nikolo-Ramenye, Cherepovets district, Vologda region. And the traffic police team managed to meet him in their relaxed way. It is not known why exactly our hero attracted the attention of the employees. Maybe they just did it out of boredom.
Whatever the case, the police suspected that the driver of the tractor-trailer had been drinking alcohol. In connection with this, he was “blown away” using a standard breath test. The device showed 0.39 mg/liter of alcohol in the exhaled air, with the permitted level for the driver not exceeding 0.16 mg/liter. The tractor pilot had nothing against the test results. After all, in his opinion, they were not threatening him with anything: he was confident that his self-driving vehicle was not a vehicle and therefore he would not be deprived of his “rights” if he drove it drunk.
But on October 18, 2022, this trust was trampled upon. The magistrate of district No. 39 of the Vologda region revoked V.’s driver’s license for one and a half years for driving a vehicle under the influence. Well, as usual, there was a fine of 30,000 rubles. The robbed man did not like this twist at all and he took the slow path of appealing the verdict.
His argument was very strong: a two-wheel tractor is not a vehicle, as it does not have to be registered with a government agency. Moreover, no “rights” are required to exploit it. But all higher courts supported the settlement decision. As a result, the ‘complaint case’ ended up at the Supreme Court.
In its decision on this matter, the Supreme Court referred to the resolution of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of July 25, 2019 No. 20 “On some issues arising in legal practice when dealing with cases of administrative offenses referred to in Chapter 12 of the Code of administrative violations.” It defines the equipment to be considered as a vehicle in the event of deprivation of “rights”. This showed that the walk-behind tractor falls under the category of a self-driving vehicle, where it is prohibited to drive under the influence.
In human, not legal terms, the ‘trick’ here is as follows. The law considers a vehicle to be any self-driving vehicle with a combustion engine whose cylinder capacity is greater than 50 cm³. Regardless of whether it needs to be registered somewhere or not. And the working volume of the engine of the Verkhininsky AMB-1M Avangard walk-behind tractor is 196 cm³. The citizen was therefore obliged to remain sober. Taking this into account, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the magistrate, who fined Citizen V. and revoked his driver’s license.
This time, citizen V, a resident of the Vologda region, was “unlucky.” the village of Nikolo-Ramenye, Cherepovets district, Vologda region. And the traffic police crew managed to meet him in their relaxed way. It is not known why exactly our hero attracted the attention of the employees. Maybe they just did it out of boredom.
Whatever the case, the police suspected that the driver of the tractor-trailer had been drinking alcohol. In connection with this, he was “blown away” using a standard breath test. The device showed 0.39 mg/liter of alcohol in the exhaled air, with the permitted level for the driver not exceeding 0.16 mg/liter. The tractor pilot had nothing against the test results. After all, in his opinion, they were not threatening him with anything: he was confident that his self-driving vehicle was not a vehicle and therefore he would not be deprived of his “rights” if he drove it drunk.
But on October 18, 2022, this trust was trampled upon. The magistrate of district No. 39 of the Vologda region revoked V.’s driver’s license for one and a half years for driving a vehicle under the influence. Well, as usual, there was a fine of 30,000 rubles. The robbed man did not like this twist at all and he took the slow path of appealing the verdict.
His argument was very strong: a two-wheel tractor is not a vehicle, as it does not have to be registered with a government agency. Moreover, no “rights” are required to exploit it. But all higher courts supported the settlement decision. As a result, the ‘complaint case’ ended up at the Supreme Court.
In its decision on this matter, the Supreme Court referred to the resolution of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of July 25, 2019 No. 20 “On some issues arising in legal practice when dealing with cases of administrative offenses referred to in Chapter 12 of the Code of administrative violations.” It defines the equipment to be considered as a vehicle in the event of deprivation of “rights”. This showed that the walk-behind tractor falls under the category of a self-driving vehicle, where it is prohibited to drive under the influence.
In human, not legal terms, the ‘trick’ here is as follows. The law considers a vehicle to be any self-driving vehicle with a combustion engine whose cylinder capacity is greater than 50 cm³. Regardless of whether it needs to be registered somewhere or not. And the working volume of the engine of the Verkhininsky AMB-1M Avangard walk-behind tractor is 196 cm³. The citizen was therefore obliged to remain sober. Taking this into account, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the magistrate, who fined Citizen V. and revoked his driver’s license.
Source: Avto Vzglyad
Donald Salinas is an experienced automobile journalist and writer for Div Bracket. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of automobiles, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the latest trends and innovations in the automotive industry.