The Ministry of Transport of Armenia commented on a possible ban on import and use of right-hand drive vehicles

ArmInfo. The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of Armenia commented on a possible ban on import and use of right-hand drive vehicles.

According to the report, received in ArmInfo, recently in the Armenian media and social networks materials are published, where there are concerns about possible restrictions on the further operation of vehicles with the right-hand drive.

Given the exaggerated contradictory facts, the ministry considered it necessary to make explanations. "At the moment there is no legal act regarding the suspension of the use of right-hand drive vehicles, the introduction of restrictions or requirements for owners of such cars," the ministry said in a statement.

It is reported that in the context of reforms on road regulation, all options for resolving the issue are discussed, while not creating difficulties for existing owners of right-handed vehicles. At the same time, from the point of view of securing road safety, the discussions take into account the proposals of all interested parties. "After summarizing all proposals, they will be presented in the prescribed manner to the public and representatives of interested structures," the ministry said.

Earlier, responding to the question of ArmInfo, the deputy chairman of the human rights organization Friend Driver, David Pedanian, stated that the developers of the program providing for the introduction of a ban on the import and operation of right-hand drive vehicles in Armenia are likely to be large importers of vehicles. According to him, the initiative should also be considered in the context of the business project of those who, as a result of the ban, will deal with the technical side of the issue, namely, the conversion of cars from the right to the left wheel, because the price of the issue is $ 700-1000. According to Pedanyan, at the moment there is no official statistics in Armenia about the road accident involving right-hand cars.  Proceeding from this, the expert considers cunning as the fact that the motivation for this idea is indicated by the fact that the movement in Armenia is not provided for right-hand drive vehicles, and therefore a large number of accidents occur with the participation of such cars. As the expert stated, more than 35% of drivers hit the initiative in their pockets.

That is how much, according to unofficial data, is the number of right-hand drive cars in the republic.According to the rumored rumors, a new impetus was given to the initiative by large importers of cars that "opened their eyes" to officials for the danger of these vehicles. It was on the results of these meetings that the Ministry of Transport started new discussions in this direction with the participation of all interested parties. As the minister of transport, communications and information technologies Vahan Martirosyan recently stated in the Armenian parliament, such cars are dangerous, since many traffic accidents are recorded with their participation (although no official statistics have been submitted to this effect so far).  "In this regard, we intend to settle this issue at the legislative level, that is, to prohibit the import and use of right-hand drive cars in Armenia, but the owners of the right-hand drive cars will be given time to replace the rudder location," the head said. Ministry of Transport. He announced that all importers will be given time to correct the position of the rudder on the left-hand side.