47-year-old mother of three children Aelita Sofronova from Chuvashia is seeking an annulment of her sentence for an accident in which a woman died.
The accident occurred on December 18, 2019 on the A151 Tsivilsk-Ulyanovsk highway.
Sofronova was driving her eight-year-old daughter to school in a Renault Megane car when a car suddenly flew out towards her.
“It was still dark, 7:30 in the morning.
We have a place where the road crosses a ravine.
And right there, on the descent, I was suddenly illuminated by four headlights: one car was moving in the oncoming lane, the other was trying to overtake it and flying straight at us.
I took to the right, the wheel caught on the side of the road, we missed each other with that car.
I was spun and carried into the oncoming lane.
I woke up already in the hospital, ”recalls Sofronova.
There was a video recorder in the woman's car, thanks to which it was possible to recreate the picture of what happened.
The moment of the accident
The footage shows the woman driving in her lane.
Then a car flies out to meet her, probably starting to overtake in a ravine.
Due to the high speed, the brand, number and color of the scorcher's car cannot be disassembled.
Sofronova takes a right to the side of the road to get away from the collision.
The violator rushes past, and Sofronova's car skids and she crashes into Lada Kalina, which is moving in the oncoming lane.
There is a third victim in the accident - the driver of the Gazelle, who was driving behind the Lada and crashed into it from behind.
The woman who was driving the domestic car died at the scene.
Sofronova and her daughter received injuries classified as serious bodily harm as a result of the accident.
Aelita's pelvic bones were crushed, as a result of which she underwent several operations and had to learn to walk again.
Her daughter has had multiple surgeries for fractures of her hip, collarbone and jaw.
As Aelita's husband Vladislav recalls, when he arrived at the scene of the accident, his wife's car was standing in the middle of the road and skid marks were clearly visible in the snow.
The woman was unconscious, and her daughter was assisted by doctors.
"I left on my own"
Sofronova was discharged from the hospital in March 2020.
“Then an investigator came to our house.
Interrogated me and my daughter.
I talked about the scorcher, I thought they were looking for him.
And I was charged in April, ”says RT Aelita.
© photo from personal archive
At the same time, according to the woman, the video from the registrar was not even examined.
In the case, only an autotechnical examination was carried out, from which it followed that Sofronova had 8 seconds to prevent an accident.
In court, the expert said that he did not have access to video technical expertise and watched the recording from the registrar only as an acquaintance (the minutes of the court session are at the disposal of RT).
“I was reviewing the recording from the DVR and saw that my wife had about two seconds to react.
She was driving in her lane, did not violate traffic rules, and it was this scorcher who provoked the accident.
I gave the flash drive to the traffic police on the day of the accident so that they could find it.
And they attached the video to the case only in February, and blamed my wife for everything,” says Vladislav Sofronov.
In addition, for some reason, the examination indicated that the road has a horizontal profile, and Sofronova’s car did not skid, and she herself drove into the oncoming lane, violating clause 8.1 of the SDA “maneuvering”, without indicating her intention to turn left with a turn signal.
“The cause of the accident was the actions of the Renault driver in terms of not performing a safe maneuver provided for in clause 8.1 of the SDA,” the expert said in court.
“The dangerous situation was created by an oncoming car, but as a result of the fact that he and Renault parted ways, the danger arose during the further movement of the Renault car.”
When asked by the lawyer about whether Sofronova had the opportunity to prevent the accident, he replied that the accident could have been avoided if the woman slowed down in her lane.
“Obviously, the car that is moving towards is not going to slow down, but if the Renault driver complied with paragraph 10.1 and, in the event of a danger, reduced the speed until the vehicle stopped, then the accident could be avoided, most likely,” the expert considered.
“But I can’t say that if the driver hadn’t taken a maneuver to the right, a collision would have been ruled out.”
Couldn't prevent
The Sofronovs, disagreeing with the conclusions of the examination, ordered a study of the recording from the video recorder.
The expert who studied the recording concluded that the accident was provoked by the driver of an unidentified car, who forced Sofronova to change the trajectory of movement.
As a result, Renault Sofronova drove into the oncoming lane by means of a "side slip".
The woman did not violate any points of traffic rules.
In addition, the expert went to the scene of the accident and pointed out that the road has a slope, not a horizontal profile, which also played a role.
© photo from personal archive
“Sofronova did not have any technical ability to prevent an accident.
When cropped, it can be seen that the Renault car makes a slow maneuver to the right side of the road.
From a technical point of view, the safe passage of three vehicles at this point on the road is impossible, ”explained RT expert Valery Ivanov, who studied the recording.
However, the court did not consider this study.
On December 18, 2020, the Kanashsky District Court of the Chuvash Republic found Sofronova guilty of a crime under Part 3 of Art.
264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic rules, negligently resulting in the death of a person) and sentenced to 2 years in a colony-settlement.
The court gave the woman a reprieve from the execution of punishment - until her daughter turns 14 years old.
“We did not expect such a verdict.
I believed that law enforcement would figure it out.
My daughter and I are recognized as victims, but the scorcher will be found.
But now, because of some person, I have to be held responsible and go to jail.
And he can continue to live in peace,” says Sofronova.
At the same time, the presence of a minor child was not recognized as a mitigating circumstance for a mother of many children.
“The presence of a dependent minor child cannot be recognized by the court as a mitigating circumstance, since the crime was committed against the said minor child,” the court ruling says.
Lawyer Anatoly Ivanov considers this conclusion of the court to be incorrect.
“This is true when a crime is committed against a person, when a child is beaten, abandoned.
But here she did not deliberately commit this accident in order to harm her daughter, Ivanov explains.
“For unintentional crimes, this rule cannot be applied.”
Instant decision
In February 2021, the Sofronovs appealed the decision of the Kanash District Court to the Supreme Court of the Chuvash Republic, but to no avail.
The family applied to the Court of Cassation and in April 2021 ordered a study of the record in the Ulyanovsk Forensic Laboratory of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
According to the conclusion of the examination (available to RT), Sofronova had not eight, but about two seconds to react when she saw an oncoming car in her lane.
“The time from the moment of guaranteed detection of the vehicle to the start of the shift to the right is 1.78 seconds,” the document says.
- The time from the moment the vehicle shifts to the right and until the passing of the vehicle and vehicle2 is 1.3 seconds.
The examination also established that Sofronova did not have the technical ability to avoid a collision by braking, and she did not violate traffic rules.
According to Sofronova, she hoped that this conclusion would help her prove her innocence.
But on September 22, 2021, the Judicial Collegium of the Sixth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction issued an unexpected verdict.
According to the court ruling (available to RT), the court did not consider the state expertise, since "it was the subject of consideration by the courts of first and second instance."
“The act of the expert study dated April 16, 2021, as evidence of her innocence, cannot be recognized as substantiated, since this act was attached to the cassation complaint and was the subject of an assessment by the courts of first and appeal instances,” the ruling states.
“I was surprised by this response.
When there were the first courts, this examination did not exist yet.
We turned to Ulyanovsk later.
Why they thought so is unknown, ”Sofronova is perplexed.
Deadline passed
According to the woman, she tried to bring the reckless driver at least to administrative responsibility for driving into the oncoming lane.
But the OGIBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Kanashsky District refused to initiate proceedings on an administrative offense due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
“In accordance with Part 1 of Art.
4.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, a decision in a case on an administrative offense cannot be issued after two months (in a case on an administrative offense considered by a judge, after three months) from the date of the administrative offense, ”the ruling says.
Now Sofronova has to pay material damage to the relatives of the deceased woman in the amount of 1 million 600 thousand rubles.
© photo from personal archive
However, she herself has not yet recovered from her injuries.
“I became disabled and lost my job.
I need expensive medicines.
But bailiffs take half of the allowances,” says Sofronova.
- It still doesn’t fit in my head, because of some person, my daughter and I were seriously injured, and now I still have to go to jail and pay a lot of money.
It's not fair."
The woman intends to appeal to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in order to obtain a review of the case and prove her innocence.
RT will continue to monitor developments.