The Scope of the Law
The foundation of highway law is the law on road traffic, which determines the legal foundations of organizing road traffic and ensuring its safety on the territory of Georgia, the main directions of state policy, the rights and duties of state-power organs, the rules and conditions of road traffic, road signs and road markings, the rights and duties of participants, and the general requirements for granting the right to drive and for registering vehicles. The law applies to citizens of Georgia, as well as to foreign citizens and stateless persons who participate in road traffic on the territory of Georgia, and to vehicles in international movement — unless an international treaty or agreement provides otherwise. At the same time the law precisely defines what is not considered road traffic: movement on a road temporarily closed for a sporting or mass event by decision of an authorized state organ, and movement on a territory permanently closed to road traffic and designated for sporting events in vehicles.
The Annexes of the Law
The law has five annexes that are its integral parts: road signs; road markings; identification signs to be affixed to vehicles; types of light signals; and the table for reducing the number of points attributed to a driving license. The existence of the annexes means that much of the everyday regulation of movement lives not in the text of the law but in its technical elaboration — from the forms of signs to the description of the points.
Means of Ensuring Safety
The means of ensuring road-traffic safety are: the regulation of automobile, surface electric transport and road-economy activity; the organization of road traffic; the material and financial provision of safety measures; the organization of a person’s study of the safety rules and requirements; the elaboration of a complex of medical-support measures; the certification of vehicles and related products; and the elaboration of rules, standards and technical norms together with state supervision and control over their fulfillment. This list shows that safety is not merely the driver’s personal affair — it is a systemic function extending from infrastructure to certification.
Technical Condition and Responsibility
A traffic participant’s vehicle must be in a technical condition that ensures the safety of road traffic, and responsibility for technical fitness lies with the owner of the vehicle or the person operating it. The driver is obliged, before starting a trip, to check the technical fitness and to maintain it during the trip. The driver is prohibited from moving with a faulty braking system, steering mechanism or coupling device, and in darkness with extinguished low and high beams (or in their absence) or rear gauge lights on a road without artificial lighting or with insufficient visibility. When a different malfunction arises that may affect safety, the driver must eliminate it on the spot or, if impossible, move the vehicle to a parking place or repair location with all necessary precautions.
Rights and Duties of a Participant
A traffic participant has the right to move freely and unhindered on the road; to receive from authorized organs information about the conditions of safe movement, the reasons for restrictions or cessation, and the quality of related services; to receive first medical, rescue and other assistance at the time of a road accident; and to appeal the action of an authorized official in the sphere of safety. At the same time the exercise of rights must not restrict the rights of other participants: a participant must not by their actions create danger or obstruction to traffic, threaten people, or damage state, public or private property. Restricting traffic by placing objects on the road or creating other obstacles is impermissible; and if for objective reasons this could not be avoided, the participant must immediately take measures to eliminate it or ensure the timely warning of other participants.
Special prohibitions also exist: it is forbidden to hand over a vehicle for driving to a person in a state of alcoholic, narcotic or psychotropic intoxication, and to a person who lacks the right to drive the corresponding category or whose right is suspended, deprived or terminated. Opening a door before the vehicle has fully stopped is forbidden, and an open door must not obstruct or endanger others.
General Duties of the Driver
Every moving vehicle and every vehicle combination must be driven by a driver. A driver whose state of health does not meet the requirements for driving is forbidden to drive; a driver must have the necessary knowledge and skills, and where driving is permitted only after the grant of the corresponding right, driving without it — or while it is suspended, deprived or terminated — is forbidden. Driving in a state of alcoholic, narcotic or psychotropic intoxication, or under a medicinal preparation that reduces reaction and attention, is prohibited; on an appropriate basis the driver must, at the request of an authorized officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, undergo a check for sobriety. For persons involved in substitution treatment the law establishes a detailed regime: for 2 weeks from taking an increased dose of the substituting preparation the right to drive any category is suspended, while 3 hours after taking a prescribed dose the person may drive only the categories defined by law and must carry a certificate indicating the time of intake.
The driver must carry and, on request of an authorized officer, present documents confirming the right to drive and the registration of the vehicle; where the data are not in Georgian or Latin letters — a certified translation as well. A driver of a vehicle in international movement must affix the registration number and the state distinguishing sign and ensure movement with a technically serviceable tachograph and observance of the work and rest regime as established by the European agreement. The driver of an oversized or overweight vehicle, or of a carrier of hazardous cargo, must present a document confirming the agreement or permission of the authorized organ for such movement.
Practical Recommendations for a Participant
First, know your rights — information about restrictions, assistance in an accident and the appeal of an official’s actions are guaranteed by law. Second, technical fitness must be checked before the trip — responsibility lies with the owner or operator. Third, the intoxication-related prohibitions work in both directions: neither drive intoxicated nor hand the vehicle to an intoxicated person. Fourth, carry your documents — driving right, registration and, where needed, a translation. Fifth, in international transport observe the tachograph and rest regime — it is a statutory duty.