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- Give a headlight: owners of right-hand drive cars may face a revocation of certification
Give a headlight: owners of right-hand drive cars may face a revocation of certification
The established requirements for car certification cannot be fulfilled when checking right-hand drive vehicles, experts interviewed by Izvestia confirmed. Arbitration in the Far East revoked the documents for several such machines, as well as the accreditation of laboratories that worked with them. As follows from the operative part of the court's decision, the certification of headlamps in right—hand drive cars is now carried out only nominally - the technical regulations do not provide for such a procedure for this category. If it turns out in the future that other right-hand drive cars have been certified in violation of the established procedure, their owners also risk facing cancellation of the issued SBCTS, experts warn.
They dazzle — they don 't dazzle
Izvestia had at its disposal the materials of the arbitration court, which confirmed the legality of the actions of the Rosaccreditation staff. In February of this year, based on the results of an on-site inspection of one of the testing laboratories that certified cars, the Far Eastern Department of the Department issued an order to revoke its accreditation and 13 vehicle safety certificates (SBCTS) issued by it. The Testing Center did not agree with this decision and tried to challenge it in an arbitration court.
As follows from the court decision, the department's claims caused violations of the established procedure for testing vehicles, which were allowed by the laboratory. In particular, they concerned mandatory checks of the operability of lighting devices, in which the direction of the light beam must meet established standards. On vehicles with right-hand drive, the light beam of the headlights does not meet these requirements.
In other words, in cars designed for right—hand traffic, the headlights are designed and configured so that they illuminate the right shoulder more, this is done in order to blind drivers of oncoming traffic less. Right-hand drive vehicles' lighting devices, designed for countries where left-hand traffic is common, on the contrary, illuminate the left shoulder more. Accordingly, when driving in Russian conditions, the headlights of such vehicles dazzle oncoming motorists more strongly.
The Arbitration Court noted that the requirements of the technical regulations "On the safety of wheeled vehicles" (TR CU 018/2021) apply to all vehicles, regardless of the location of their controls. And the verification of these standards should be carried out in accordance with GOST 33670-2015 "Single vehicles. Examination and testing methods for conformity assessment," the arbitration emphasized.
"Paragraph 1 of the general provisions of TR CU 018/2021 establishes that this technical regulation, in order to protect human life and health <...>, establishes requirements for wheeled vehicles, regardless of their place of manufacture, when they are put into circulation and in service in the single customs territory of the Customs Union. Thus, each individual single vehicle put into circulation must comply with the requirements of <...> TR CU 018/2021," the decision of the Arbitration court of Primorsky Krai says.
As a result, the court dismissed the laboratory's complaint, upholding the order of the Rosaccreditation Department for the Far Eastern Federal District.
reference
The Vehicle Design Safety Certificate (SBCTS) is a document confirming the vehicle's compliance with the requirements of the Technical regulations on the Safety of Wheeled Vehicles. It is issued by specialized laboratories for cars imported into the territory of the Russian Federation by private individuals, after carrying out the necessary checks and tests: from tests on treadmills with an assessment of engine power, exhaust compliance with environmental standards and the effectiveness of the braking system to checking the operability of lighting devices, the availability of active and passive safety systems.
Appendices and GOST standards
The press service of Rosaccreditation told Izvestia that during the control and supervisory activities, the agency's employees suppressed the facts of the illegal issuance of SBCTS by testing laboratories. Based on the results of the dispute, the court confirmed the legality of the decision to terminate the accreditation, the department noted.
"The subject of the trial in no way affected the legality of the importation and handling of right-hand drive vehicles on the territory of the Russian Federation. The court considered exclusively the legality of issuing individual SBCTS for specific cars and the legality of the actions of a certain laboratory," the Russian Accreditation Agency emphasizes.
Accredited persons are guided by TR CU 018/2011 and the relevant annexes when carrying out work to verify compliance with the requirements for the Vehicle before releasing them into circulation and registering the SBCTS for them. The tests themselves are conducted in accordance with GOST 33670-2015, the federal Accreditation Service told Izvestia. Rosaccreditation is guided in its activities by regulatory legal acts and explanations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the developer of GOST (FSUE NAMI), as well as emerging law enforcement practice, the department noted.
"Currently, 91 accredited laboratories are operating," the press service of Rosaccreditation reported in response to a request from the editorial board about the number of testing laboratories in the Russian Federation accredited to conduct tests under Appendix No. 8 to the technical regulations.
The methods of verifying compliance with the requirements for single vehicles that are in circulation, or for vehicles that are already in operation but have undergone design changes, are established by the national GOST standard, the Ministry of Industry and Trade told Izvestia. During its development, the provisions of both Appendix No. 4 and Appendix No. 8 to the technical regulations were applied, the agency clarified.
"This is due to the fact that Appendix No. 4 contains requirements for a single vehicle, expressed in a general form, usually without specifying specific numerical values," the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade explained the rules for the application of regulations in car certification.
According to the agency, the requirements for lighting and light-signalling devices specified in Appendix No. 4 are similar: they contain only information about the number, geometric location and color of these devices, and checking their compliance with safety requirements (adjusting the angle of inclination, the intensity of the headlights, etc.) can only be carried out when checking the Application. No. 8.
"That is, accredited testing laboratories, when verifying compliance with the requirements for single vehicles, must ensure that they verify compliance with the requirements of Appendix No. 4, taking into account Appendix No. 8, in accordance with GOST," the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade explained.
The press service of FSUE NAMI explained that GOST 33679-2015, which contains methods for evaluating individual vehicles, provides for the use of special optical means designed to correct the light beam. Therefore, right-hand drive vehicles can undergo a conformity assessment and receive an SBCTS if such special means were used during the assessment.
"Neither the technical regulations on the Safety of Wheeled Vehicles nor GOST prohibit bringing a vehicle to meet the established requirements, including by replacing headlamps with headlamps designed for the declared type of car, but with a left—hand steering wheel," the response to the editorial's request says.
According to the law
Since the testing laboratory did not follow the procedure for certification of the vehicle, the supervisory authority decided to revoke its accreditation, and the arbitration court confirmed the legality of the actions of the agency's employees, explained Sergey Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement.
— From the point of view of the law, both the Rosaccreditation order and the decision of the arbitration court are absolutely correct. If the certification of cars was carried out without checking them for compliance with the established safety requirements, then the SBCTS for such cars are in fact issued with violations, which means they are subject to cancellation," the lawyer told Izvestia.
According to Sergey Radko, the cancellation of the vehicle's electronic passport may become the basis for the cancellation of the vehicle's electronic passport issued on its basis, which may later lead to the termination of car registration.
The trial in the Far East is one of the links in the chain of measures taken by Rosaccreditation to restore order in the field of car certification, Maxim Kadakov, editor—in-chief of Za Rulem magazine, believes. This was the result, among other things, of fraud involving the "remote" registration of the SBKTS, which was revealed by Izvestia in late spring, he recalled. However, the measures taken by the department are too straightforward and formal, the editor-in-chief of Za Rudem emphasized.
— Formally, both Rosaccreditation and the arbitration court, which sided with the agency, are right: the laboratories did not fulfill the established requirements for checking vehicles for their compliance with the provisions of the technical regulations. However, in the case of right-hand drive vehicles, they are virtually impossible to perform. The legislation prohibits making changes to the design of vehicles that have not been put into circulation in the Russian Federation, and the SBCTS is just one of the documents authorizing the release of vehicles into circulation," said Maxim Kadakov.
Thus, formal compliance with these standards actually leads to a stalemate: without checking the lighting equipment, a car cannot be legally certified, checking the headlights of a car with a right-hand drive will in any case reveal non-compliance with the established requirements and the SBCTS will not be issued for it, the expert notes. And without this document, it is also impossible by law to replace the headlights on such a vehicle with analogues that "shine where they need to," he emphasizes.
— Of course, it is necessary to restore order in the field of transport certification. But this must be done very carefully and precisely, taking into account the characteristics of each specific machine that undergoes this procedure," Maxim Kadakov is convinced.
Work on increasing the transparency of the issuance of SBCTS should be continued, said Anton Shaparin, head of the National Automobile Union.
"The key issue is that the rules for issuing these important documents should be as clear, accessible, and uniform as possible for all organizations in the industry and the EAEU countries where unified legislation is in force," he said. "All decisions of law enforcement agencies should be based on already adopted regulations and should not contain arbitrary interpretations of legislation. This will contribute to stability and reduce tension.
He also noted that, of course, it is impossible not to take into account the peculiarities of imported cars: a significant percentage traditionally come from Japan, eco-friendly and economical hybrids are very popular.
"The current rules should keep such models on the market, especially since the road safety strategy recently adopted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs speaks about the need to update the fleet and does not highlight additional risks from right—hand drive vehicles," he said.
The new rules, the expert noted, provide for the need to check right-hand drive vehicles at the stand. They will not be able to pass the test, and it is prohibited by law to change the headlights before they are put into circulation.
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