The new Highway Code published in the Official Journal

Law 25 November 2024, no. 177 (published in the Official Journal no. 280 of 29 November 2024) constitutes the amendment to the Highway Code with enormous innovations in the field of road safety, in implementation of the delegation to the Government for the revision of the Highway Code.

The new law introduces a series of specific amendments to Titles I, III and IV of the Highway Code but also to the related legislation.

A significant part of the legislative intervention concerns the cases of road injuries and road homicide as well as the contravention of abandonment of animals provided for by art. 727 of the Criminal Code.

There are interventions on the crime of driving under the influence of alcohol (art. 186 of the Highway Code) with the introduction of paragraph 9-ter to implement Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006. The new paragraph provides that, with respect to the driver convicted of the crimes referred to in paragraph 2, letters b) and c) of art. 186, the indication on the Italian driving licence of the words "LIMITATION OF USE - Code 68. No alcohol" and "LIMITATION OF USE - Code 69. Limited to driving vehicles equipped with an alcohol interlock device in accordance with standard EN 50436" must always be provided.

These provisions will appear on the driving document for a period of at least two years in the cases provided for in paragraph 2, letter b), and at least three years for those referred to in paragraph 2, letter c). c) of the amended provision.

In addition to this, the revocation of the driving license will be ordered and the absolute ban on consuming alcoholic beverages before driving for a period of two or three years, based on the seriousness of the violation.

Regarding driving under the influence of drugs, a simplification of the procedures for ascertaining the consumption of drugs and psychotropic substances has been introduced, with the elimination of the need to verify the state of psycho-physical alteration, resulting in a positive test being sufficient, as a result of the new rule, to be able to apply the immediate suspension of the driving license.

In the Criminal Code, Article 589-bis has been replaced by the second paragraph which now reads: "Whoever, while driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol pursuant to Article 186, paragraph 2, letter c), of the Highway Code, pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 285 of 30 April 1992, or under the influence of psychophysical alteration resulting from the intake of narcotic or psychotropic substances, or while driving one of the pleasure craft indicated in Article 3 of the Recreational Boating Code, pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 171 of 18 July 2005, under the influence of alcohol or under the influence of psychophysical alteration resulting from the intake of narcotic or psychotropic substances in the presence of the conditions set out in Articles 53-bis, paragraph 2, letter c), and 53-quater of the same Recreational Boating Code, causes through negligence the death of a person is punishable by imprisonment from eight to twelve years".

The same change concerns the crime of negligent road injuries.