The road safety bill in the Chambers by the end of the month

From the life sentence of the license to the squeeze on scooters and speed cameras. By the end of the month, the examination of the bill for road safety will start in Parliament. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, announced, during a question time in the Chamber, the arrival of the provision in June, which aims to give more rules, more education and more safety on Italian roads. Among the novelties is the alcohol lock, a device which, in the event of a conviction for driving while intoxicated, will be mandatory to install in the car and prevents the engine from being started if the blood alcohol level is above zero. The number one priority of the bill is, moreover, the contrast to driving after having taken alcohol and drugs, even with the so-called “life sentence of the driving license” which will provide for the withdrawal of the permit for life. The minister defined the 3,120 deaths in accidents in 2022 as “a figure unworthy of a civilized country” and recalled the clash in the province of Brescia where, on Tuesday night, a boy who was riding a scooter was killed by a boy who was motorcycle. The new provision will introduce rules for soft mobility with mandatory helmet, insurance, license plate and arrow. For scooters and bicycles, as anticipated, there will also be heavy penalties for wild parking and for driving the wrong way. There will also be a delegation for an organic reform of the Highway Code and a draft ministerial decree on speed cameras, which would already be ready pending the approval of the road safety measure. The latter will define the conditions for the installation and use of uniform control devices in all Municipalities with certain rules, fair and effective sanctions and citizens’ right to defense.

Confindustria Ancma, the national cycle and motorcycle accessories association, expresses “strong concern”. For the president of Ancma Paolo Magri, “not only have we underlined the value of the cycle sector, which in Italy generates a turnover of over 3.2 billion euros, but we have also highlighted that ours would be the only country in Europe, where among other things the use of the bike is widely more widespread, to introduce these obligations”. According to Magri, Italy “has great potential for cycling tourism, it has a growing market, it is one of the leading bicycle manufacturers in the Eurozone, it expresses an entrepreneurial fabric of excellence made up of over 250 small and medium enterprises, for the 80% settled between Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont” and the reform “today seems more against the diffusion of the bicycle than in favor of greater safety on the roads: penalizing the leadership of our industry would be an own goal”.

Responding to another question, Salvini then indicated his intention to approve the national airport plan by the end of the year and forcefully reassert control over the sector and supervision over ENAC to ensure the highest standards of transparency, effectiveness and efficiency. “Unfortunately it hasn’t always been like this in the past, we are working to make it like this in the present and in the future,” he said.