Conflict with the law: in Khabarovsk, the driver can be punished for ramming a wrongly parked car

On September 5, an unusual accident occurred in Khabarovsk. The Orlyonok train of the specialized narrow gauge Far Eastern Children's Railway hit the Toyota Land Cruiser SUV, which was inaccurately parked near the tracks.

The incident occurred on Krasnodar Street in the Khabarovsk district of the Vegetables. The foreign car was parked partly on the sidewalk, but most of it was right on the lawn adjacent to the rut. According to local residents, due to the shortage of parking spaces in the area, many drivers put cars sloppy.

In an interview with local media, the driver noted that, due to the bending of the railway tracks, he noticed the car quite late. Seeing him, and assuming that a collision could occur, he began to slow down, but did not have time to quickly stop the train.

As a result, the almost-stopped train still rammed the SUV with the steps of two cars, causing serious technical damage to the foreign car. The steps themselves underwent severe deformation.

“I applied braking, but because of the weight of the train and the remaining distance, it was not possible to prevent a collision. The locomotive passed, and a foreign car was hooked by cars, footboards - they protrude. Yes, cars here often park like this - on lawns, sidewalks, ”DVHAB.RU quoted the driver of the children's train as saying.

According to him, the weight of each car is 12 tons, and the locomotive weighs 20 tons, so it’s impossible to quickly stop the train.

At the time of the collision, in addition to the driver, there were a woman with a child, as well as a guide. None of them were injured, but everyone had to leave the train outside the station.

The car owner was surprised by the collision.

“I thought that they did not go from September 1. Well, even if so, then why the car? Was it not clear what would hurt? ”- the motorist said to the police who arrived at the scene.

Police officers called to the place found the driver guilty of an accident, who, according to journalists, was issued a protocol for hitting an obstacle. Two protocols were drawn up on the owner of the SUV - he was prosecuted for parking on the sidewalk and interfering with railway transport.

Now, the Far Eastern Railway, which, as local journalists suggested, will then recover the costs from the driver himself, must compensate the damage to the owner of the SUV - more than 200 thousand rubles.

The car owner, whose name remained unknown, abstained from communicating with the media. He retouched the license plate number in the photo and video from the scene of the collision.

The decision of the police to convict the driver outraged the network users, who almost unanimously decided that it was the car owner who was to blame.

Commentators ironically note that thanks to such a decision, local motorists have a great way to dispose of their old car - just throw it on the tracks and then get compensation from the railroad.

A number of users proposed to prosecute the owner of the machine and impose art. 267 of the Criminal Code, which implies liability, inter alia, for “blocking transport communications if these acts entailed, through negligence, causing serious harm to human health or causing serious damage”.

It was not possible to get a comment in the press service of the Far Eastern Railways. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Khabarovsk Territory RT could not comment on the incident, advising them to contact the Transport Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Far Eastern Federal District. They assured that the incident was not recorded with them, and was advised to contact the traffic police. The regional traffic police was not available for comment.

The coordinator of the Blue Buckets community, auto expert Petr Shkumatov, believes that in this case it was not traffic police that had to deal with the situation, but Rostransnadzor employees who were supposed to resolve the incident on the railway.

“I think that traffic rules do not apply to this case, because the train is not a vehicle in terms of traffic rules - this is not a tram. This means that the police simply did not have the right to hold the driver accountable for hitting an obstacle. They could draw up reports on the owner of the SUV, but there is no longer a decision on guilt. It is clear that no one knows the phones of Rostransnadzor and people, most likely, just called the police, because it’s easier, ”he said.

The expert believes that the train driver must defend his innocence and appeal the decision in court.

Moscow lawyer Marat Amanliev also considers it erroneous to prosecute the driver.

“The police were mistaken. Firstly, they should not have considered the material regarding the train driver at all. Secondly, there is no fault in his actions. He did not break anything. If the driver had parked at a sufficient distance from the tracks, the damage would not have occurred. Moreover, the driver, in his words, did not have the opportunity to avoid a collision for technical reasons, so at least we need technical expertise, ”he told RT.

The lawyer added that from the point of view of the Administrative Code, the driver is not to blame. “If you look from the point of view of civil law, Russian Railways will have to pay as the owner of a source of increased danger. And the driver now needs to go to court and appeal the decision of the traffic police, ”Amanliev summed up.

RT asked Rostransnadzor to comment on the situation. The press service of the department advised to turn to the Far Eastern Railway for comment.