Controversy over new rapid road tests: police reaction
Articol de Mihaela Dumitrescu, 07 Iulie 2024, 17:17
The Romanian police advise you to inform yourself about the medicines you are taking, i.e. read the package leaflet carefully or consult your doctor. Some medicines are contraindicated for driving, and drug-test machines even detect substances in them.
The General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police also says that not all drivers will be tested, as has been rumored in the public space, but only those who find themselves in one of the situations explicitly mentioned in the ordinance, such as unnatural behavior, the presence in the car of containers likely to hold alcohol or drugs and, above all, those who have been fined or convicted of driving drunk or drugged in the past.
Although it admits that 15-20% of all roadside tests are forensically invalidated, police say testing is a legal obligation. There is also the option of refusal, but at that point the administrative measure is to withdraw the license until the results of the biological tests are received. This is where one of the problems raised by those contesting Ordinance 84 comes in: the very long interval between taking the samples and getting the result.
The police decline jurisdiction and say that the forensic medical services are responsible for these tests. However, the new legislation will allow the Inspectorate to have its own laboratories and the results to be issued as quickly as possible. The first of these, for which the documentation has already been prepared, will be operationalized at the National Institute of Criminalistics.
The non-governmental organization Declic has announced protests against Ordinance 84 for next week, and online signatures are being collected for a petition calling for the executive to repeal the law. To date, the petition has gathered more than 163.000 thousand signatures.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said he agreed with the ordinance because the state has an obligation to save lives and announced the purchase of new testing machines for blood samples.
Translated by: Radu Matei
