The Chamber of Deputies adopted a legislative initiative on Wednesday at a plenary session as a decision-making body, which allows the traffic police to detain vehicles illegally parked on the sidewalks.

The bill was passed by 232 votes to three, with 29 abstentions, and amends GPN No. 10. 195/2002 to allow traffic police to issue removal orders for illegally parked vehicles, eliminating conditions for illegal parking on the side of the road.

“In the current version of the Road Traffic Rules, this measure can be applied only if cars are illegally parked on the roadway. Therefore, if the vehicle is illegally parked entirely on the sidewalk, the police cannot issue an order to remove it,” the exposition says. reasons

USR MP Cătălin Drula explained that the project supports people with disabilities, people accompanied by small children, who are forced to walk on the road because the sidewalks are illegally occupied by cars.

“There are institutions that are blocked, there are serious cases when firefighters cannot put out fires because of these illegally parked cars, and until we pass this bill, the traffic police, interpreting the law, says that it cannot remove them. There are mayors of municipalities of all colors who are asking for this project,” explained Drula, who is also the initiator of the bill.

During the discussion of the draft law, deputies from AUR declared that they would abstain from voting, citing that the draft law could lead to “many abuses”.

“There are approximately 1.4 million vehicles in Bucharest alone, to which are added 500,000 transit ones, that is almost 2 million vehicles with parking spaces of approximately 350,000. We are in a situation from which there is no way out, from which those who drove until now, those who owned UATs, those who created roads of 3, 4, 5 meters, roads on which even two cars cannot drive at the same time are to blame. We are in an impossible situation, for which neither pedestrians are to blame, not the drivers who are forced to leave their vehicles where they can, but those who have been driving until now. That’s why we will refrain from voting for such a good law, but it gives way to many abuses,” said AUR deputy Alin Kolesha from the gallery of the plenum.

The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making forum in this case, and the bill goes to President Klaus Iohannis.