New Regulations to Promote Road Safety

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is amending current legislation to reduce the number of accidents on Georgia's road. The Deputy Interior Minister, Shalva Khutsishvili, announced the new rule will be enforced from January 1st.

Alongside numerous initiatives, the Ministry is introducing a demerit points system for driving licenses. This means drivers will be given 100 points for 1 year, when the driver commits a traffic violation, points will be deducted. When the driver has no more points left, the license will be revoked. The driver will be notified by SMS.

The Deputy Minister said that the citizen can apply to the Agency and pass the exam again after two months of the initial revoking.

"From the beginning of January, all driver's license, regardless of category, will be awarded 100 points once a year. If a citizen violates a traffic rule, and is stopped and fined by the patrol police, for example for calling on the phone, points will be subtracted. A computer program will automatically subtract points from the standard 100," Khutsishvili said.

How many points a certain violation pertains is not yet determined and will be specified later.

Khutsishvili added that, to prevent unruly drivers, secret patrolling will be introduced to Georgia as well.

“A secret patrolling method basically means having police cars without any signs that they are police,” Khutsishvili said.

According to Khutsishvili, radars will be installed as well. The location of the radars will not be known by the drivers, and slowing down when approaching them will not be possible anymore.

The new amendments also outlines improved control on public buses, tightens rules on car emission, encourages gradual upgrading of older cars around the country, and includes practical driving tests which include driving on the road driving instead of on carparks only.