The Armenian government approved a decision to ban the importation of right-hand cars into the republic, and also initiated the development of a corresponding draft law.

ArmInfo. The Armenian government today approved a decision to ban the importation of right-hand cars into the republic from April 1 of this year, and also initiated the development of a corresponding draft  bill.

As a justification for the decision, the Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan gave some statistics. So, according to the minister, the number of accidents involving right-hand drive vehicles is 28% higher than with left-handers. And the number of victims as a result of road accidents involving right-hand drive vehicles is 39% more than with left-hand cars.  Meanwhile, earlier, following  the request of ArmInfo, the Road Police of Armenia reported that statistics on the registration of accidents involving right-hand cars in general there. The DP also reported that the statistics began to be implemented only from the middle of 2017, and so far there is no generalized data on this score.

Despite the fact that the minister justified the adopted decision solely on the need to ensure the security of the road accident, nevertheless, the ban is rather conditioned by the rules of the Eurasian Economic Union, of which Armenia is a member.

The initiative of the government caused a negative response among the owners of cars with the right wheel, which organized a number of protest actions with the demand to cancel this decision. However, the government only partially made concessions to drivers. So from the draft decision was removed the ban on the sale and reissue of right-hand drive vehicles. Their owners will still be able to exploit their cars, and then sell or re-register. The ban will only extend to the importation of right-hand drive vehicles.