Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Publishes Paper Examining Policy Change on Speed Enforcement in Russian Federation

Recently, the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) team members, including assistant professor, Kavi Bhalla, post-doctoral fellow Nino Paichadze, assistant scientist Shivam Gupta, senior technical advisor, David Bishai and director, Adnan Hyder, along with Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program collaborators from Lipetsk State University of Technology and Ivanovo State University of Technology, published the results of an assessment of change in the national speed enforcement law in the Russian Federation.

In September 2013, the Russian Federation relaxed national speed enforcement rules. Prior to this date, drivers could be fined 100-300 Rubles for exceeding the speed limit by 10-40 km/h, with higher penalties for higher speeds and repeated speed violations. The September 2013 law eliminated fines for driving up to 20 km/h above the speed limit.

Given that reducing vehicle speed is among the most effective road safety strategies, and that there is substantial evidence linking speed enforcement to vehicle speeds, the team hypothesized that the elimination of fines would lead to an increase in the proportion of vehicles speeding.

As part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program, IIRU has been collecting data on speeding in two Russian oblasts, Lipetskaya and Ivanovo since 2011. The data, collected both before and after the new law suggest that, while significant progress was being made toward effective speed control in those two regions prior to the new law, it appears those gains were lost immediately following.

In a country that has the highest mortality rate due to road traffic crashes in the WHO-European Region, these findings suggest that road traffic injuries will likely increase in Russia unless speeding fines are reinstated. 

“Rapid assessment of road safety policy change: relaxation of the national speed enforcement law in Russia leads to large increases in the prevalence of speeding,” can be found in the July 2014 issue of Injury Prevention.

Read more here.