280 Fewer Incidents Recorded, 22 Fewer Casualties: Police Chief Presents Data

Arman Sargsyan, the Chief of Police, addressed the National Assembly today during the presentation of the report on last year’s budget execution, discussing the operations of the penalty system implemented for preventing road traffic violations. The police chief reminded that as of January 1, a point system has been introduced for certain traffic violations.

He noted that as a result of implementing this system, a total of 129,195 decisions have been made regarding administrative violations that incur penalty points during the first five months of 2020. Nine or more penalty points have been applied to 778 individuals, and the rights to operate vehicles have been suspended for 71 individuals, of which the decisions for 40 have already entered into effect according to established procedures.

According to him, despite the fact that the point system currently operates solely through technical means—speed cameras and surveillance—visible positive outcomes from recorded violations are already apparent. "As of June 4, there have been 280 fewer road traffic incidents compared to 2019, with a decrease of 22 fatalities and 357 injuries," the police chief stated.

The reduction in fatalities, he attributes to the introduction of the point system, emphasizing that the decline in incidents and casualties mainly occurred in Yerevan. He also noted that the restrictions due to the coronavirus played a role, although positive dynamics began to emerge even before those restrictions were imposed.

“One important fact is that this statistic was recorded with around 217,000 more vehicles compared to 2018, and approximately 137,000 more vehicles compared to 2019,” the police chief added.