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- Ελληνικά
The Department of Public Works of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works announces the opening of a public consultation on the draft bill "The Road Safety (Amendment) Act 2024", which concerns the regulation of the control of driving under the influence of drugs.
The consultation will be conducted online through the platform the-Consultation of the Republic of Cyprus, where comments and opinions can be submitted for one month, i.e. until 9 May 2024.
It was deemed appropriate by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works to improve this legislative framework, after more than five years since the practical implementation of the drug testing law on 25 January 2018. The proposed changes will improve practical issues without changing the philosophy and main implementation provisions of the original law.
The main objective of the drug test law remains to prevent drivers from driving under the influence of drugs, an issue that is extremely dangerous both for the drivers themselves and for other road users. This law has filled a significant gap in the testing of drivers for drink-driving.
In addition, the law has helped the agencies involved in road safety issues to record and understand the level of the problem and to take wider action to prevent drivers from driving under the influence of drugs.
Unfortunately, driving under the influence of drugs remains one of the main causes of fatal road collisions in Cyprus, despite the general improvement in road safety indicators.
The drug testing legislation was adopted by the Road Safety (Amendment) (No. 1) Law of 2016 (L.13(I)/2016), which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus on 11 March 2016.
The proposed provisions of the Bill cover three main changes and improve practical matters as follows. This provision is proposed in the case where the hospitalised person is unable to provide a saliva sample. [*]The provision for the possibility of a single saliva sample for use both in preliminary screening and for laboratory testing is removed (Article 3 of the Bill). The available preliminary screening device currently used by the Police does not allow the sample to be used for the final examination as well. Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary procedural problems, it is proposed to remove this provision. [*]It is proposed to limit the time for which positive saliva samples from a laboratory test are kept to one month after the issuance of the relevant report by the State General Laboratory (Article 4 of the Bill). Law 13(I)/2016 provides for the storage of these samples one month after the citizen has been informed of the result and the intention to destroy the sample. This provision of the law has no practical value because the sample cannot be usable for further testing from a certain point in time onwards. [/LIST]
(NYAN/MS)
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