A pedestrian can cross the road outside the pedestrian crossing, if there is no one nearby and the carriageway is clearly visible. Unfortunately, these rules are often violated.
Harsh reality
The overwhelming majority of pedestrians cross the road at their convenience, often contrary to common sense and neglecting their own safety. According to the traffic police of Russia for 4 months of 2014, 7482 pedestrians were injured in an accident, 1288 of them died.
In the event of a collision with a pedestrian, even through the fault of the pedestrian himself, the driver will face long and unpleasant consequences.
Criminal liability
First of all, police officers initiate a collision check to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case. The check will be carried out in two directions:
1. Establishing the possibility of avoiding a collision with a pedestrian in a particular case; whether there has been a violation by the driver of the Traffic Regulations; technical serviceability of the vehicle at the time of the collision.
Practice shows that any opportunity to avoid a collision is interpreted as a violation of traffic rules by the driver.
If during the check the complete innocence of the driver is established, then the driver is not subject to either criminal or administrative liability.
2. The severity of the harm caused to the health of the pedestrian.
If a pedestrian has suffered serious injury or died, then this is one of the grounds for bringing to criminal responsibility. A serious injury is a condition that threatens death or a long-term and / or permanent disability. The severity is determined by a forensic medical examination. If the examination recognizes the damage of medium or light severity, then the initiation of a criminal case will be refused, even if the driver is at fault, and the material will be submitted to the court for administrative proceedings.
The maximum sentence in such cases is imprisonment for up to 9 years and deprivation of rights for up to 3 years.
Administrative penalty
If the injured person is injured of moderate severity or minor injury to health, then administrative proceedings will be applied against the driver who hit him. Depending on the degree of guilt and damage caused, the court may impose a fine from 2,500 to 25,000 rubles and deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of 1 to 2 years.
Civil responsibility
The owner of the vehicle is the owner of a source of increased danger, in this regard, bears full civil liability for damage caused during the operation of the vehicle. That is, regardless of whose fault the accident occurred, the owner of the vehicle must reimburse the costs of treatment (and / or funeral), damaged clothing and other material losses. A court may exempt from compensation for harm if, during the process, the owner of the vehicle proves that the harm was caused as a result of force majeure or on the intent of the victim.
