The last proposal belongs to PSD head Gorj, who wants drivers to be able to pass the continuous line without problems, even when it is double, if the driver in front is going too slowly. “There is an explanation”, as a famous character made in Oltenia would say. Current legislative provisions generate “multiple problems” and traffic jams, the initiator says, causing “increasing driver discomfort”.
While an amendment to the Highway Code – which stipulates that, during the day, drivers will be obliged to use dipped headlights or daytime running lights on all categories of public roads, not just motorways or European national roads – has just was approved in the specialized committees of the Chamber of Deputies, going to receive the final vote in the Parliament, another legislative project that brings changes in the normative act that was put on the table of the senators.
The initiator of the project, the social-democratic deputy Mihai Weber, claims that a new legislative amendment is necessary because the provisions of the Emergency Government Ordinance 195/2002 regarding traffic on public roads (Road Code), as well as those of the Regulation on the application of the GEO, generate multiple problems .
“Although the purpose of the normative act is subordinated to the idea of safety, fluency and normality in road traffic, in practice blockages occur,” he says.
Obstacles make road traffic difficult
“Such a situation is when the driver of the motor vehicle encounters a stopped, stationary or moving at a very low speed obstacle in his direction of travel, and in order to overcome this obstacle it is necessary to violate the single or double continuous marking that delimits the opposite direction, the vehicle traveling, even partially, in the opposite direction”, writes the deputy in the statement of reasons accompanying the project.
According to him, drivers who are in this situation are penalized by the traffic police for violating the continuous line without taking into account the reasons that led to this action.
“Furthermore, the regulatory framework in force does not remove the disruptive nature of the obstacle, but makes it difficult for the fluidity of road traffic, causing an increase in the driver’s discomfort, but also an average commercial speed that has a negative impact on the activity of economic operators and large carriers”, he claims Michael Weber.
Drivers going 30 km/h, carts and cyclists
Therefore, he proposes to allow by law – and therefore no longer to be sanctioned – the overtaking maneuver which involves crossing the axis that separates the directions of traffic in order to overcome obstacles of any kind, stopped, stationary or moving with speed lower than 30 km/h, regardless of whether the continuous marking is single or double, with the mention that the conditions necessary to ensure traffic safety must be respected.
Specifically, “if the visibility of the road is ensured over a distance greater than 20 m, and the width of the road is at least 7 m”.
A damaged car on the road or a fallen tree, carts, animals or cyclists are among the potential obstacles on the roads.
The initiator of the legislative project recalls that, through the implementing regulation of GEO 195/2002, some exceptions have already been established regarding overtaking in certain situations – on uneven passages, on bridges, under bridges and in tunnels. Basically, if the above conditions regarding the visibility and width of the road are met, animal-drawn vehicles, motorcycles without attachments, mopeds, bicycles and electric scooters can be overtaken in these places, the deputy wants to specify.
The new proposal to supplement the Highway Code is also supported by 34 other PSD MPs and an unaffiliated deputy.