This week a bill was introduced in the Congress of the Republic that introduces a new reform to the National Traffic Code (Law 769 of 2002) and that aims to guarantee the right to life and personal integrity on the basis of road safety.
This means, according to Senator Roy Barreras, author of the project, regulating risk factors in cities and roads that threaten the lives of users. The congressman defined the initiative as “A road safety statute that implies safe roads, safe vehicles and safe standards, but also responsible drivers”.
For this reason, one of the articles proposes the maximum speed on roads – for private vehicles – at 90 kilometers per hour, in cities at maximum 50, and in school and residential areas at 30 km / h.
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This project also returns to the need to make the tests and examinations for obtaining driving licenses more demanding, an aspect that is already regulated but has not been fulfilled; it demands more security equipment for cars and motorcycles and contemplates custodial sentences but excarceable.
Another proposal is that Colombia adopt the United Nations Vehicle Regulations (WP29). “The absence of these protocols makes us buy unsafe and expensive vehicles and the price difference with and without safety specifications is earned by importers,” said Barreras.
One of the articles that will surely cause controversy is the one that would impose the payment of tolls to motorcyclists, which according to the project will be valued at a value equivalent to 30 percent of what a car pays. The charge would be only for medium and high cylinder motorcycles.
The bill emphasizes a ‘Safe System’, recognizing human error as the main cause of road accidents. Whereby, “The system needs to put layers of protection in the form of safe roads, safe vehicles, adapted speeds, so as not to subject the users of the system to a level of impact force that can cause injury to life, personal integrity and Health”. At the same time, it contemplates a profound reform to the role of the National Road Safety Agency, ANSV.
These are the most important points.
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Safer vehicles
The project forces the Colombian state to subscribe to the United Nations regulations on vehicles, defined and unified by the World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations WP29. This is a uniform system of regulations that, among other aspects, regulate vehicle safety and environmental protection through emission standards.
Regardless of this, the project says, “importers and marketers of motor vehicles must ensure that the requirements of the regulations and rules of the United Nations World Forum for Vehicle Harmonization – WP29 are met.”
And it sets a term of three years for the Ministry of Transport to gradually regulate the regulations related to: Protection in the event of a frontal or lateral collision; rear; pedestrian protection; Electronic Stability Control; Antilock Brake System (ABS); Seat belt anchors and ISOFIX anchors; Seatbelts; Seats and their anchors; Headrest; Pollutant emissions from vehicles; CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.
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Safer roads
It obliges to incorporate in the road design specifications that prevent and dissuade user behaviors that may put their lives, personal integrity, and health or that of third parties at risk. This translates into better signaling, behavior deterrence mechanisms, among these, speed limits and overshoots to promote speed decreases of at least 15%.
Driving licenses
In addition to requirements such as knowing how to read and write, passing the theoretical and practical exams, being 16 years old to obtain the private car driving license for the first time, the novelty of the project is that These people will be called ‘new drivers’, for which a probationary permit will be issued, which will be valid for two years. You will only be able to drive cars and they must have the indication of “new driver” in a visible place.
It must constitute a non-contractual civil liability policy, with a minimum coverage of forty-six (46) SMMLV, which will be calculated in Tax Value Units (UVT) and for two the new driver may not exceed 60 km / h, thus signage allows for higher speed.
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Motorcycles will pay tolls
At existing toll stations and those that are implemented thereafter, motorcyclists will be charged a fee equal to 30 percent of the value paid by a car. In pesos it means that in category 1 tolls whose car rate is $ 12,600 pesos, the motorcyclist would pay about $ 3,800.
Mandatory motorcycle airbag
Starting in 2022, motorcycles manufactured in Colombia, as well as those imported, must have frontal airbags and the Ministry of Transportation must, within a period of no more than six months, regulate the performance and characteristics of the device. Likewise, from 2022 the national or imported motorcycles must have an automatic lighting system.
Speed limits
On urban roads, the maximum and minimum speeds for public or private service vehicles would be determined and duly indicated by the competent Traffic authority in the respective district or municipality. In no case may it exceed fifty (50) kilometers per hour.
The speed limit for cargo and school transport vehicles will be forty (40) kilometers per hour. The speed in school zones and in residential zones will be up to thirty (30) kilometers per hour.
On national and departmental roads, the authorized speeds for public or private vehicles would be determined by the Ministry of Transportation or the Interior, as the case may be, taking into account the road’s specifications. In no case may it exceed ninety (90) kilometers per hour. For public service, cargo and school transportation, the speed limit may in no case exceed sixty (60) kilometers per hour.
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Penalties for drivers
This bill adds three new conducts in the Penal Code that provide for custodial penalties in cases such as driving a vehicle or motorcycle with an illegal, falsified or expired license, exceeding the limits by more than 20 km / h at the permitted speed; driving while intoxicated or under the influence of psychotropic substances.
The penalty is imprisonment for three to six months and a fine of thirteen 13 to 75 minimum, legal, monthly wages in force; it will be increased from a third to a half if the driving license is suspended or canceled. Although this sentence is expendable, according to Barreras, “the social sanction remains.”
Solidarity in fines
The bill aims to amend Paragraph 1 of article 8 of Law 1843 of 2017, which overturned the Constitutional Court, which held the owner of the vehicle responsible for traffic fines even if he were not the offender. However, this proposed reform continues to leave the burden of proof on the owner.
“The owner of the Vehicle Ownership Card is generally responsible for noncompliance with the traffic regulations referred to in this Law unless he provides the information that allows identifying the real author of the infringement. The owner of the vehicle ownership card is obliged to respond pecuniary for the fine incurred unless he appears at the public hearing and rejects the commission of the offense, in which case he must establish the existence of a theft or provide evidence that allows establishing that he is not the true offender. “
DRAFTING VEHICLES
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