What the Traffic Safety Article Covers
Article 276 of the Criminal Code of Georgia covers the violation of the rules of traffic safety or operation of transport — acts connected with driving an automobile, tram, trolleybus, tractor or other mechanical transport vehicle. The article is built as a ladder of penalties: the tier rises with the consequence — from less grave damage to health, to grave damage, then to the death of one person and of two or more persons — and at each tier a separate price is set for an act committed sober and an act committed under intoxication.
Cases under this article are among the most numerous in criminal justice, and the accused’s fate almost always depends on the technical work of the investigation: the mechanics of the collision, the degree of injury and the fact of intoxication are established by special expert examinations.
Driving Under the Influence of Narcotic Substances
The first part of the article separately addresses driving a mechanical transport vehicle under the influence of a narcotic, psychotropic or new psychoactive substance. Such an act is punished by a fine, or house arrest for a term of six months to two years, or community service for a term of two hundred to four hundred hours, or imprisonment for a term of up to three years. No consequence is required here — the case rests on the very fact of driving.
Less Grave Damage to Health: Two Frames
Under the second part, a violation of the rules of traffic safety or operation committed while driving that caused less grave damage to health is punished by a fine, or house arrest for a term of six months to two years, or imprisonment for a term of up to three years, with deprivation of the right to hold a position or carry out an activity for a term of up to three years or without it. The same act committed under the influence of alcohol or a narcotic, psychotropic or new psychoactive substance moves to the third part: imprisonment for a term of two to five years with the same possibility of deprivation. It is also worth noting that deprivation as a form of penalty is applied precisely where the act was committed under the influence of alcohol.
Grave Damage to Health: Three to Six Years
Under the fourth part, an act under the second part that caused grave damage to health is punished by a fine or imprisonment for a term of three to five years, with deprivation of the right to hold a position or carry out an activity for a term of up to three years. The same act committed under intoxication — under the fifth part — is punished by imprisonment for a term of four to six years, with the same possibility of deprivation. The degree of injury — less grave or grave — is established by medical expert examination, and this conclusion directly determines the tier of the penalty.
Causing Death: The Most Severe Tiers
Under the sixth part, an act under the second part that caused a person’s death is punished by imprisonment for a term of four to seven years, with deprivation for a term of up to three years. The same act committed under intoxication — under the seventh part — carries six to nine years. The death of two or more persons — under the eighth part — carries six to ten years, and under intoxication — under the ninth part — from eight to twelve years of imprisonment, with the possibility of deprivation. Thus the same consequence receives twice the heavier price where the driving took place in a state of intoxication.
Establishing Intoxication and the Possibilities of Defense
The law states precisely that committing an act under this article under the influence of a narcotic, psychotropic or new psychoactive substance is established by clinical and laboratory conclusions, and where a laboratory examination is refused — only by a clinical conclusion. This provision is an important instrument for the defense: clinical signs are often evaluative, and evidence against them can always be presented. The remaining directions are also technical: the auto-technical expert examination answers whether the driver could have avoided the collision; the condition of the road, the signs and the signaling reflect the environment; witnesses and video recording reflect the sequence of events. Every conclusion is subject to re-verification: the expert’s qualifications, the method used, the completeness of the initial data. The procedural rules are established by other provisions of the Code, and their violation is an instrument of the defense.
How Legal.ge Can Help
On the Legal.ge platform you can select a criminal defense lawyer working on road accident cases. The lawyer will re-verify the auto-technical and medical expert examinations, assess the legality of establishing intoxication, protect your rights at every stage of the investigation and present your position in court. Fill in a request on the site — a lawyer will contact you and assess your case.