Parts replied to interpellation concerning improvement of road traffic culture

The Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts answered to the interpellation concerning supervision of training of motor vehicle drivers and improvement of road traffic culture, submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Jaak Aab, Kalev Kallo, Kalle Laanet, Jüri Ratas, Ain Seppik, Vladimir Velman, Arvo Sarapuu, Toivo Tootsen, Olga Sõtnik, Nelli Privalova, Eldar Efendijev, Jaan Kundla, Lauri Laasi, Kadri Must, Valeri Korb, Lembit Kaljuvee, Tiit Kuusmik and Heimar Lenk on 16 January. The interpellators wished to know what the Ministry was going to do for improving the situation.

Parts explained that the Government had approved a four-year plan for implementation of the road traffic safety programme for 2008–2011 in November in the previous year. This implementation plan concerns not only the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications but all ministries which have to do with road traffic, that is, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. “I believe this implementation plan to be fairly ambitious. It includes different spheres, eight different spheres in total – legislative drafting, training, supervision, road traffic environment and traffic supervision – and certainly the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications sees its role as co-ordinating, to ensure that traffic issues are well co-ordinated between ministries. Certainly, our direct responsibility is related to the activities of the Road Administration and the Motor Vehicle Registration Centre,” said Parts.

The inspection system of driving schools is as follows: at first, the supervisory department of the Motor Vehicle Registration Centre organises quality control in co-operation with the examination department. The supervisory department and the internal audit department of the Motor Vehicle Registration Centre prepare a list of motor vehicle registration offices to be inspected on the basis of a quarterly schedule and driving schools in the service area are inspected at least once a year. Inspection methods include visual inspection, inspection of cases arising from complaints of students and detected violations and on the basis of the analysis of examination results, monitoring of the quality of the work of teachers in carrying out theory and practical instruction, and analysis of the inspection of the documentation which is subject to preservation by trainers. Inspection covers validity of the education licence, conformity of teaching aids, materials and study rooms, technical condition of vehicles for driving practice, validity of training documentation and certificates of the driving instructors involved in training, and subject-relevance of lessons. The Motor Vehicle Registration Centre supervises driving schools on the basis of risk analysis, that is, driving schools which call for a more detailed inspection are sifted out as a result of a comparison of various data. “In our estimation, such approach is reasonable and ensures purposeful use of the existing resources,” Parts noted.

According to the information provided by the Minister, 206 driving schools operate in Estonia at present.

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On the motion of the Finance Committee, the Bill on Amendments to the Eesti Pank Act (182 SE) is not going to be deliberated at the sitting on Thursday.

The verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian) is available at: https://www.riigikogu.ee/?op=steno

The Riigikogu Press Service