Commentary on Article 463. Violation of the Rules for Driving or Operating Vehicles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan
1. Violation of the rules for driving or operating a combat, special-purpose or transport vehicle, resulting through negligence in the infliction of bodily injury of moderate severity on a person, —
shall be punishable by a fine in an amount of up to one hundred and sixty monthly calculation indices, or corrective labour in the same amount, or arrest for a period of up to forty days, with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to two years.
2. The same act, resulting through negligence in the infliction of grievous bodily harm on a person, —
shall be punishable by a fine in an amount of up to three thousand monthly calculation indices, or corrective labour in the same amount, or restriction of liberty for a period of up to three years, or imprisonment for the same period, with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to three years.
3. An act provided for in Part One of this Article, resulting through negligence in the death of a person, —
shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period of up to five years, with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to five years.
4. An act provided for in Part One of this Article, resulting through negligence in the death of two or more persons, —
shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period of five to ten years, with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to ten years.
The public danger of the criminal offence (Part 1 – a criminal misdemeanour; Parts 2, 3 and 4 – crimes) lies in the threat it poses to human life and health, as well as in the fact that it may disrupt military activities and reduce the state's defence capability.
Recognising that violations of the rules for driving vehicles and violations of the rules for operating vehicles are equal in terms of their public danger, the legislator formulated these independent types of criminal offences as alternative elements of a single corpus delicti of a socially dangerous act.
The object of the criminal offence is the established procedure for driving and operating combat, special-purpose or transport vehicles, ensuring the safety of their movement.
Additional objects are the life and health of military personnel and civilians, as well as the preservation of military and other property.
In accordance with Subparagraph 16) of Article 1 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 17 April 2014, “On Road Traffic”, road traffic safety is understood as the state of road traffic reflecting the degree of protection of its participants against road traffic accidents and their consequences, as well as against the negative impact of road traffic on the environmental situation and public health.
Ensuring road traffic safety is an activity aimed at preventing road traffic accidents and the negative impact of road traffic on the economic situation and public health, reducing the severity of their consequences, as well as eliminating such consequences (Subparagraph 17) of Article 1 of the Law).
A combat vehicle is a self-propelled vehicle specifically designed to destroy the enemy's manpower or military equipment. These include tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), armoured personnel carriers (APCs), self-propelled artillery and missile launchers (SA and ML), vehicles designed for towing artillery systems and trailers equipped with fire-control equipment, as well as other self-propelled technical equipment and motorcycles used in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the purpose of carrying out the tasks assigned to them.
Special-purpose vehicles are self-propelled technical means used for a specific, specialised purpose corresponding to the type of vehicle or the equipment installed on it. Special-purpose vehicles include various engineering vehicles (trench diggers, bulldozers, rooters and similar equipment), medical transport vehicles, mobile repair workshops, laboratories, etc.
Transport vehicles are considered to be vehicles intended for transporting personnel, weapons, ammunition and military-technical property, as well as vehicles used for the daily economic, cultural and domestic, medical and other needs of a military unit. Paragraph 31-1 of the Regulatory Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Judicial Practice in Cases Involving Military Criminal Offences” states that, when classifying vehicles as combat, special-purpose or transport vehicles, courts should be guided by the provisions of Articles 463 and 466 of the Criminal Code and the Instructions on the Operation of Automotive Equipment of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The use of a motor vehicle includes its driving and operation, which are regulated by the laws and the Traffic Rules of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Driving should be understood as controlling a vehicle while it is in motion.
The operation of a motor vehicle is a stage in the life cycle of a motor vehicle that includes its use for its intended purpose from the moment of its registration until the moment of its disposal.
The rules for operating vehicles are a set of provisions contained in the aforementioned legal acts, which, in turn, impose on certain persons the obligation to create favourable conditions for the safe use of military vehicles.
The objective aspect of the criminal offence under consideration consists of violations of the rules for driving or operating a combat, special-purpose or transport vehicle, which result through negligence in the infliction of bodily injury of moderate severity on a person.
The concept of “violation of the rules for driving and operating vehicles” in this corpus delicti is equivalent to the corresponding concept contained in Article 345 of the Criminal Code, which provides for criminal liability for violations of traffic rules or the rules for operating vehicles by persons driving such vehicles. The only specific feature lies in the types of self-propelled vehicles involved.
Violations of the rules for driving vehicles (traffic rules) may take the form of exceeding the speed limit, failing to observe the order of passage through intersections, violating overtaking rules, violating the rules for reversing, or driving onto the left side of the road. Road traffic accidents often occur as a result of driving a vehicle while fatigued, driving when blinded by the dazzling headlights of an oncoming vehicle, and similar circumstances.
In accordance with the Traffic Rules of the Republic of Kazakhstan, approved by Resolution No. 1196 of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 13 November 2014, a road traffic accident is an event occurring in the process of a vehicle moving along a road and involving that vehicle, which results in bodily injury, the death of a person, damage to vehicles, structures or cargo, or other material damage.
Violations of the rules for operating vehicles may include driving a technically defective vehicle, transporting people or cargo in a vehicle not equipped for such purposes, transporting oversized cargo, parking a vehicle in an inappropriate location, and other similar actions.
By its legal structure, the corpus delicti of this criminal offence is material. The criminal offence is deemed completed from the moment a violation of the rules for driving or operating a combat, special-purpose or transport vehicle results through negligence in the infliction of bodily injury of moderate severity (Part 1 of Article 463 of the Criminal Code) or grievous bodily harm to a person (Part 2 of Article 463 of the Criminal Code). The definitions of these concepts are provided in the commentary to Subparagraph 3) of Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code.
The subjective aspect is characterised by an unintentional form of guilt in the form of recklessness or negligence.
In the case of recklessness, the perpetrator foresees the possibility of socially dangerous consequences arising from their actions (inaction), but, without sufficient grounds, frivolously relies on preventing those consequences.
In the case of negligence, the guilty person does not foresee the possibility of socially dangerous consequences arising from their actions (inaction), although, with due attention and foresight, they should and could have foreseen those consequences.
Motives and purpose do not affect the legal classification of the offence but are taken into account by the court when imposing punishment.
The subject is special, namely, a military servicemember who drives a vehicle or is responsible for the operation of vehicles. In this regard, the subject of a violation of the rules for driving a military vehicle is the military servicemember who operates that vehicle, whereas the subject of a violation of the rules for operating military vehicles may only be the military servicemember who has been specifically assigned the duty of complying with those rules.
Part 3 of Article 463 of the Criminal Code establishes criminal liability for an act provided for in Part 1 of this Article that results through negligence in the death of a person, while Part 4 establishes liability for an act that results through negligence in the death of two or more persons.
The definitions of the concepts of causing death through negligence and causing the death of two or more persons are provided in the commentary to Parts 2 and 3 of Article 462 of the Criminal Code.
The act provided for in Part 1 of Article 463 of the Criminal Code is classified as a criminal misdemeanour.
The acts provided for in Parts 2 and 3 of Article 463 of the Criminal Code are classified as crimes of minor severity.
The act provided for in Part 4 of Article 463 of the Criminal Code is classified as a crime of moderate severity.
Note: Spelling errors, typographical errors and obvious distortions of words have been corrected, word hyphenation has been restored, and punctuation has been corrected. The content and volume of the text have been preserved. The substance of the legal provisions and the current validity of the references to legislation cited have not been independently verified.
Commentary of 2021 on the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, authored by Isidor Shamilovich Borchashvili, Honoured Figure of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Law, Professor, Academician of the Kazakhstan National Academy of Natural Sciences, Member of the Scientific Advisory Councils under the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Member of the Working Group on Reform of the Law Enforcement System under the Security Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Honoured Employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
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