Will state cars be confiscated from drunken drivers?

"The car may be confiscated regardless of who the owner is," head of the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office Pyotr Kisyalyou told Euroradio. The suggestion to confiscate cars for repeated drunken driving is ready.

Car expert Alyaksandr Kanaplitski has presented interesting statistics: there were 894 road accidents caused by drunken drivers in 2011. 26 of them used state cars.

"Besides drivers of privately-owned cars, there are those who drive cars owned by the state. Such drivers were also detained for drunken driving last year. Does it mean that a trolley-bus should be confiscated if its driver is drunk?"

More examples: a father allows his son to use his car at the week-end and the latter gets detained for drunken driving. The car will be confiscated from the father although it is the son who should bear responsibility for the crime. It may also be a friend using your car, etc.

Alyaksandr Kanaplitski: "A person goes away on vacations and his son or wife get detained for drunken driving while using his car. How could he control them? Or a couple may buy a car. The husband is caught drunk and the car gets confiscated. But why has half of the wife's property been confiscated? She has not done anything bad."

Ex-lawyer Pavel Sapelka recalled that such practice was used in Belarus in the past but got abandoned.

"It used to be possible to confiscate cars that were involved in customs crimes. A vehicle could be confiscated regardless of who the owner was and whether he or she knew about the smuggled goods in the car or not. It was a violation of car owners' constitutional rights."

It is possible to understand how cars may be confiscated from owners detained for drunken driving. However, the law says that property confiscation is only possible if the crime is mercenary.

The situation may become absurd, Artsyom Sharkou thinks.

 "People who often drive when they are drunk may start buying junk cars - so that they do not regret if the car is confiscated. And the rest will suffer. People detained for repeated drunken driving should better pay huge fines and their cars should be arrested until the fine is paid."

But who will stop drivers of junk cars when a posh car is much more profitable?

Depriving people of their driving license is not effective either, Alyaksandr Kanaplitski said. 682 drivers were involved in road accidents in 2011. 351 of them were intoxicated.

"I do not think that they have never had a driving license. They were confiscated. But they keep driving anyway."

A survey has been conducted on the website "Auto Malinauka" - almost 60% of the pollees confessed that they sometimes drink alcoholic beverages before driving. That is why Alyaksandr Kanaplitski thinks that huge fines and compulsory community work would be a better punishment.

"The fines for drunken driving are huge in Germany. People get jailed for 3 months for moderate road accidents. If the accident is serious, they bear criminal responsibility for it. They always get jailed for administrative infringements if they were committed in a state of intoxication. And nobody cares whether the jailed are going to lose their jobs."