The change of preference proposed by UNASEV to avoid confusion in transit from Uruguay
Marcelo Metediera assured that there are different criteria regarding the norm and there are drivers who “they are missing out.”
The Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MTOP) sent to Parliament a bill that introduces modifications to the circulation and passage preferences of vehicles in traffic at the national level.
According to the document, the initiative “tends to resolve specific aspects of interpretation that have been observed in the application of current regulations.”
Specifically, the project proposes to modify article 17, paragraph 6, of law No. 18,191, which establishes: “The driver of a vehicle that changes direction or direction of travel must give the right of way to others.”
However, according to the text sent to Parliament, “differences have been noted in the interpretation of said rule and, consequently, citizens are exposed to different inspection criteria.”
Under this argument, the MTOP proposes adjusting the wording to “guarantee equal conditions to all inhabitants of the territory, regardless of their place of movement, and in line with the principles of justice, administrative efficiency and protection of the central legal good: the life and safety of people in transit.”
The proposed new wording would read as follows: “The driver of a vehicle who changes the direction of travel or direction must give right of way to others. The driver who is going to change direction maintains right of way only with respect to the other driver facing a stop or yield sign in the same direction.”
The general director of UNASEV, Marcelo Metediera, explained to Montevideo Portal that in several departments of Uruguay the law is not being respected. “Sometimes you come down a preferred street, you are going to turn and you would have to stop because you change the direction of traffic, but in reality that doesn’t happen. People just turn,” he added.
Metediera clarified that it is not associated with traffic accidents and maintained that drivers “they are being left wanting in legal terms” and this “too widespread in the country to work on it in educational terms.”
