Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Mikhail Delyagin sent a bill to the government for review, according to which electric scooters, electric skateboards, hoverboards, segways, unicycles and other SIMs are actually equated to full-fledged vehicles. It is proposed to oblige their owners to register their SIM cards with the traffic police within 10 days after purchase, followed by obtaining license plates. The procedure must be carried out through the portal of public services.
For violators of traffic rules on SIM, the authors of the bill provide for the introduction of special penalties in the Code of Administrative Offenses. So, for driving an unregistered electric transport, a citizen will receive a fine of 800 rubles. Repeated riding on it without numbers will threaten with a penalty in the amount of already 5,000 rubles. A similar punishment is provided for the “sim owner” for drunk driving or leaving the scene of an accident. Repeated drinking while driving SIM threatens 10-15 days of administrative arrest. Driving on footpaths and zones on individual electric vehicles should be punished with a 2,000-ruble fine. For the passage of the intersection “to the red” – 1000 rubles. Repeatedly ignoring the prohibitory traffic signal – 5000 rubles.
The timeliness of the appearance of a legislative initiative is substantiated by statistical data. In 2019, 142 accidents involving SIM were registered, in 2020 – 410, in 2021 – 672, and in 2022 – already 941, Izvestia reports.
If Mr. Delyagin’s bill is put into practice, there is no doubt that the next step in regulating the traffic of SIMs will be the introduction of an analogue of OSAGO for their owners, in order to compensate the victims for damage from the actions of electric scooters and unicycle enthusiasts. After that, SIM, from the point of view of law, will actually turn into a kind of motor vehicles. With the difference that “rights” will not be needed to manage them. Although this issue will certainly be settled by active lawmakers. It is high time.
