Traffic Violations’ Fines Reduced to DZD 2000
The joint committee of the two houses of Parliament approved a compromise formula to resolve the contentious provisions of the draft traffic law.
This formula included reducing fines for third and fourth-degree traffic violations to a maximum of DZD 2000, removing the criminal nature of the law’s provisions, and deleting the second paragraph of Article 124, which pertained to penalties for transport professionals in cases of manslaughter. The provisions were then applied universally, similar to those for ordinary drivers, thus upholding the principle of equality before the law. This point had sparked considerable debate and prompted representatives of transport professionals to demand its repeal. Meanwhile, the committee retained the stricter penalties, without any reduction, for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
In detailing this compromise formula, the amendments addressed 11 articles that were points of contention within the draft law. The most significant changes centred on readjusting the fines for third and fourth-degree traffic violations. The reductions covered a number of the most common offences, such as speeding, disregarding stop signs and traffic signals, using a mobile phone while driving, continuing to drive a vehicle without a valid driver’s license or professional competency certificate, and making sudden, dangerous lane changes without warning. The maximum reduction reached DZD 2000, while the fines for some of these violations ranged between DZD 9000 and DZD 15,000.
In a related context, Senator Youcef Ider, a member of the committee, confirmed to Echorouk that the committee had resolved the debate surrounding the amended Article 124 by deleting its second paragraph. The first paragraph of the article stipulated that any driver who unintentionally caused or committed manslaughter due to recklessness, lack of caution, negligence, or failure to respect traffic laws and regulations would be punished with imprisonment from one to five years and a fine of 100,000 to DZD 500,000.
However, the second paragraph of the same article increased the penalty when manslaughter occurred under the same circumstances using a heavy vehicle, a public transport vehicle, a school bus, a taxi, or a vehicle transporting goods or hazardous materials. The penalty was increased to imprisonment from three to seven years. This paragraph was removed, the spokesperson added, in response to a demand from transport professionals who called for the generalisation of the ruling to uphold the principle of equality before the law.
The members of the Joint Committee also voted on Articles 125, 127, 128, and 129, introducing a unified linguistic amendment that replaced the terms “prison” and “temporary imprisonment” with “detention,” reflecting the standardisation of legal terminology in the draft law.
Within the framework of the compromise, the committee emphasised the decriminalisation of the law’s provisions, while maintaining strict penalties for the most serious offences. Specifically, it retained the same penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, given the direct threat these offences pose to road safety.
The National People’s Assembly office has scheduled a session for Monday, March 9, to approve the disputed provisions of this law, pending the scheduling of a subsequent session by the Council of the Nation to approve the entire law in accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution.
