News

A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Saratov Region Office of the Investigative Committee sufficient to convict a 55-year-old resident of the town of Engels. He was found guilty of violation of the traffic code under influence entailing death of a person by negligence under Part 4 of Article 264 of the RF Penal Code.

The court and investigators have revealed that on 7 November 2016, the man was driving his GAZ-31105 car ran over pedestrians crossing a road on an unregulated pedestrian crossing in Stroitelei avenue in the town of Engels marked by signs and road marking. A 7-year-old boy was killed in the accident and his 60-year-old grandmother was taken to a hospital.

During a preliminary probe, the investigators analyzed the data they received from the Saratov Region traffic police on traffic accidents involving pedestrians that had happened on unregulated pedestrian crossings in Stroitelei avenue between 1 January 2013 and December 2016. They found that there was a stable tendency towards the increase of such accidents including fatal ones. If there were no traffic accidents involving pedestrians registered in Stroitelei avenue in 2013, then in 2014, there were 2 such accidents, 7 accidents in 2015, one of which was fatal. There were 6 traffic accidents in 2016, one of which ended up in the death of the 7-year-old boy.

To prevent similar accidents in future, the investigators filed a request with the administration of Engels pointing out the necessity to set traffic lights on the said crossing or consider alternative variants of ensuring safety there, for example, setting speed bumps. Having considered the request, the administration made a decision to set duplicating signs, LED signs and two traffic lights at the said crossing.

In addition, according to the results of a forensic medical examination the boy’s grandmother suffered light bodily harm in the accident which means that the actions of the accused can be qualified as an administrative offence under Part 1 of Article 12.24 of the RF Administrative Offences Code (violation of the traffic code entailing light bodily harm). Material was sent to the territorial police department requesting to punish the violator. During the investigation, the man confessed to the crime and repented.

The court has sentenced the man to 5 years in a minimum-security correctional facility and banned him from driving for 3 years. The court also awarded 3 million rubles of damages to the boy’s parents.