Bulgaria Introduces

Vehicle Confiscation

For Drink/Drug Driving

  Police will seize the vehicles and keep them until court confication ruling. PHOTO: BTA10 AUG - Drink and drugged driving punishments were severely increased in Bulgaria with the country also introducing vehicle confiscation for these offences.

A minimum of 5 years in prison will be the penalty for a driver who causes death on the road while drugged or drunk or does not have a driving license or flees the scene of the crash or if the act is committed on a pedestrian crossing, recent amendments to the Penal code stipulate.

Severity

 Currently the punishments for these crimes were from 3 to 15 years in prison, and in particularly severe cases - from 5 to 20 years. MPs raised the lower limit and agreed to set it to from 5 to 15 years and from 10 to 20 years, respectively. MPs also increased the penalties for causing death in an accident due to carelessness. Currently, they are from 2 to 6 years in prison, and in particularly severe cases - from 3 to 10 years. According to the new texts, the punishment is from 3 to 8 years in prison, and in particularly severe cases - from 10 to 20 years.

Manslaughter

When death is caused by negligence while driving a vehicle, the penalty is imprisonment for three to eight years, and in particularly serious cases - from five to twelve years, the parliament decided. Until now, the punishment under the Criminal Code was from two to six years, and in particularly serious cases - from three to ten years in prison. If the act was committed in a drunken state or after the use of narcotic substances or their analogues, or the person without medical reasons refuses to be tested for alcohol and/or narcotic substances or their analogues, or it resulted in bodily injury or death of more than one person the punishment is imprisonment from five to fifteen years, and in particularly severe cases – from 10 to 20 years, the deputies voted for. The same sentence is provided for cases when the manslaughter perpetrator fled the scene of the crash, or drove without having the necessary driving license as well as after exceeding the permitted speed in a populated area by more than 50 km/h, or if the act was committed on red signal on the traffic light system or on a pedestrian crossing. Until now, the punishment in particularly serious cases was from five to twenty years.

Seizure

The court will now be able to confiscate in favor of the state the motor vehicle that was used to commit the crime and is the property of the perpetrator. When the perpetrator is not the owner, he can be sentenced to pay a fine equivalent to the value of the vehicle, the parliament also adopted.