Owners of agricultural machinery used for seasonal field work are proposed to be exempted from compulsory liability insurance (CTP). Such a bill has been submitted to the State Duma.
Current legislation obliges the owners of all vehicles to purchase an insurance policy. Whereas self-propelled agricultural machinery - grain, fodder and potato harvesters, mowers, reapers, sprayers and others, are most often used for no more than one to two months during the year. In addition, work in the field virtually eliminates the possibility of getting into a traffic accident. Oversized (wider than 2,55 meters wide) vehicles may be allowed onto public roads only with special permits.
The bill introduced in the federal parliament by the Tyumen Regional Duma provides for the exemption of owners of such field equipment from the obligation to insure their liability. The authors of the amendments believe that the purchase of policies worth up to 1,7 thousand rubles per combine and up to 3 thousand rubles per tractor is extremely burdensome for agricultural producers.
IPA experts interviewed critically evaluate this initiative. They remind that OSAGO tariffs provide for the possibility of seasonal insurance of agricultural, as well as snow-removing, watering and other special vehicles. So, private individuals, including farmers, have the right to buy a policy for three months for half its cost for a year, organizations - six months for 70 percent of the base price. “It would be logical not to cancel compulsory motor third-party liability insurance for vehicles operating in the field, but to establish reduced coefficients for it, corresponding to the risk of an accident due to the fault of tractor drivers or combine harvesters,” say participants in the insurance market.
At the same time, refusal from insurance can deprive bona fide road users of guaranteed protection. In the event of an accident caused by the same combine operator, the victim will have to sue the relevant farm or other owner of the agricultural machine. And practice confirms that such accidents happen repeatedly and often lead to serious consequences. Thus, in September 2014, a Honda passenger car was blown up on the Voronezh-Tambov highway as a result of a collision with a combine, its driver and two passengers, including a one-year-old child, were killed. The bus was also damaged; several of its passengers required medical assistance. In September 2015, in the Krasnodar Territory, a locomotive of a passenger train from Sukhumi to Moscow crashed into a combine harvester that entered a railway crossing on a prohibitory signal.
Source: http://legalpress.ru