From fines calculated based on kilometers over the 17-year-old license limit, to the new rules on insurance, overtaking and notifications: what the reform of the Highway Code provides.
There is a paragraph that really triggers applause among the new rules of the Highway Code. It may not be the most important in terms of road ethics, but its application could even achieve the objective – pursued since the days of the “friendly tax” – of reducing at least a little the gap (and acrimony) that has always marked the relationships between citizens and institutions. Especially the sanctioning ones. What is it about? Proportionality in sanctions for speeding. That is, that (healthy) principle according to which, whoever violates the most, pays the most. No more super sanctions for the limit violated perhaps only by 1 kilometer per hour, but a sort of “basic fine” to which a quantum will be added for each kilometer per hour detected above the limit: 10 euros on the motorway, 5 or 10 euros in the city.
As unexpected as it is probably effective in making those with heavy feet responsible, the provision is among those that will form the new Highway Code by October 14th, the expiry date of the extension granted to the old Code.
The Ministry of Transport, led by Matteo Salvini, has sent the working materials of the new Highway Code to over one hundred operators and sector associations to complete the consultation process “with the aim of arriving at a text that is as close as possible to the needs of motorists, with traffic safety as a priority”, we read in the official press release and each stakeholder will have until 15 September to respond with proposed amendments.
At that point it will again be up to the ministry to integrate the new ideas into a single text. A collective effort, in short, necessary also because the innovations that Salvini aims to introduce are significant. They range from the possibility of driving a vehicle for seventeen-year-olds, to overtaking on the right on the motorway, from restrictions for those traveling without insurance, to stopping crafty foreigners who do not pay fines.
Let’s see the detail.
As regards the driving license for seventeen-year-olds, it is an alignment with a plan to update the law envisaged by Brussels and will be based on the principle of accompanied driving. Very young people will be able to drive a car with a supervisor at their side before officially obtaining the B license when they come of age. The supervisor must be at least 24 years old and have held the B license for over 5 years, without interruptions due to withdrawal.
On the subject of insurance, a hard line against those who are not in compliance with strengthened checks through the databases of the Motor Vehicle Authority and in case of failure to regularize, the first roadside check can trigger the seizure directly. The document also works on measures to combat degradation and abandoned vehicles.
For motorcyclists, “greater protection on the motorway” and the possibility “in the event of accidents or severe slowdowns, to use the emergency lane, always guaranteeing the passage of emergency vehicles”, the ministry anticipates. Also under study is “the introduction of the rule of overtaking on the right on the motorway” with traffic considered in parallel rows and the possibility of overtaking on the right. And again: for propelled cycles, also used for home deliveries, the obligation to wear a helmet and permit is being studied, while for people with disabilities it should be easier to move from one municipality to another without bureaucracies that limit their rights or access to restricted traffic areas. The ministry’s idea is to introduce the obligation for Municipalities to join the Cude platform which allows digital identification of license plates with permission, under penalty of “the impossibility of using the devices for remote verification of violations relating to the Ztl”.
Returning to the topic of fines, the objective of the draft proposal is “to make them simpler and proportionate to the actual seriousness of the violations”. For this reason, in addition to the issue of speed limits, there is an increase in the amounts in the presence of aggravating circumstances (new drivers, heavy vehicles, vulnerable users or altered psychophysical conditions of the driver), a “reduction of the increases in sanctions in the event of non-compliant payment” – with a prohibition on the inspection bodies from burdening the user with those costs of legal fees and credit recovery which caused the costs of sanctions to rise abnormally in the event of late payment – and a crackdown on unpaid fines from foreigners and on the various tricks to avoid paying. Five years to recover the sums and the “forced collection from any driver found to be circulating in Italy on the vehicle with which the infringement was committed”.
And still on the subject of fines: stop to the automatic increase linked to inflation and the reduction from 90 to 30 days for the notification of reports relating to remote assessments.
A specific chapter is then dedicated to road traffic crimes: illegal races, driving without a licence, driving while intoxicated (on which the current law will be confirmed), alteration of license plates, failure to help and fleeing or forcing a checkpoint.
