Administrative responsibility
According to clause 12.8 of the traffic rules, drivers are prohibited from leaving children under 7 years of age alone in the car without the presence of another adult. But in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation there is no fine for this particular violation, but they can be charged under Part 1 of Art. 12.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, according to which the violator faces a fine of 500 rubles. For residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the fine increases to 2,500 rubles.
This measure is applied if, as a result of the violation, the child was not injured and was not in significant danger. You can leave him alone for up to 5 minutes: for example, if you need to refuel your car at a gas station. If more than 5 minutes have passed, the inspector has the right to fine the driver upon discovering an offense.
Example:
A man and a 5-year-old child went to the park by car. On the way, he stopped at a store, thinking he would do his shopping quickly. Concerned passers-by noticed the child alone in the car and called the traffic police. The inspectors arrived quickly, before the parent returned. The total time the child was alone in the car exceeded 20 minutes.
When my father returned, the inspectors were already waiting for him. A protocol was drawn up on the spot, and a few days later I received a resolution and a receipt to pay a fine of 500 rubles.
In this situation, the child was not in any danger; there was no open danger for him. But the law is the same for everyone, and for the slightest violations you will have to pay a fine.
What is the punishment?
According to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO)
There is no direct specific mention of punishment for this violation in the Code of Administrative Offenses. In this case, prosecution is carried out on the basis of Article 12.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, namely part 1 of the article.
This article regulates violations of the rules of stopping and parking vehicles. In accordance with this article, the driver will be punished in the form of a warning or a fine in the amount of 500 rubles.
This issue is also regulated by Art. 125 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This article is aimed at punishing a more serious threat to the life of a child. At the same time, the article of the Criminal Code provides for both fines and criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment.
The fine in accordance with this article can reach more than 80 thousand rubles. In other cases of causing serious harm to health, correctional labor may be prescribed.
In accordance with traffic rules
Based on Resolution No. 761 of June 28, 2017 and paragraph 8 of Article 12 of the Traffic Regulations, it is prohibited to leave a child under seven years of age alone in a car while parked without supervision.
At the same time, the specific age of the person who cannot be completely alone in the car is clearly indicated. In general, the adoption of this resolution, which can only be the beginning in the legal regulation of this issue, was provoked by numerous precedents. Cases of various kinds occurred both in Russia and abroad.
The most high-profile cases relate to when a towing service took a car to an impound lot with a child in the car. At the same time, the car windows were tinted and the evacuation service employees were not able to see anyone there. The child was found three hours later.
Another high-profile case: a father put a child in a car during the evacuation of the car in order to prevent employees from transporting the car.
Criminal liability
Things are much more complicated when a child is in danger of being left alone in a car. In this case, the culprit will be charged not under the Code of Administrative Offenses, but under Art. 125 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, where the fine is much higher - up to 80,000 rubles.
Instead of a fine, they may be required to undergo correctional labor for 12 months, assigned to compulsory labor for a period of up to 360 hours, arrested for three months, or imprisoned for up to one year.
Deprivation of liberty is used extremely rarely: for example, when a minor is injured as a result of being left in danger. Mostly, the perpetrators are fined or assigned correctional labor.
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Even if the driver is fined under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he will still have a criminal record in the future. Therefore, it is recommended to be more attentive to children and not leave them alone in the car. In addition, the ban is provided for their own safety.
What is taken into account when considering a case?
It is not so easy to prosecute under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The employee who discovers the offense will examine several circumstances:
- Vehicle parking location. If a car is left in violation of traffic rules on a busy road, this poses a danger to the child. For example, an illegally parked car may be driven into;
- Weather conditions and temperature in the cabin. If it is too cold there or, on the contrary, stuffy, this will play a bad role for the person responsible for the minor;
- Driver absence time. If he was absent for no more than 5 minutes, there is a high probability that he will not be held accountable.
Other circumstances that pose a danger to the life and health of the child, both physical and psychological, may also be taken into account.
How to install a child seat in a car correctly
To ensure the safety of a child while driving, it is necessary to correctly select child restraint devices (according to age and weight) and install them.
There are three options for installing a child car seat, depending on the car, each of them has its own specifics:
1) Isofix fastening system. The chair is secured to the metal fasteners on the outboard runners using built-in locks. The slides are located inside the seat and are rigidly connected to the body. When using this international standard, the need for standard belts is completely eliminated.
Most modern cars are equipped with a similar security system. In most cases, these elements are indicated by special symbols and are located at the edges of the seats.
2) Installing the car seat using a standard belt. This method of securing child seats is used in the absence of the Isofix system, but there is a built-in fastening function using standard belts.
When using this safety device, you must carefully study the instructions for the car seat; if you have any questions, you should refer to the detailed operating instructions for this brand of car.
3) Belt + retainer. This option for fastening the chair must be used in the absence of a system, and the standard seat belts are not fixed or structurally blocked.
To secure the belt, you must use special grooves in the car seat, which are designed to securely fasten the belt and hold the seat in place. To properly secure the child, you should pull the belt all the way out and pass it through special places. If the belt turns out to be too long, you can shorten it by tying a knot.
Additional seat belts
Factory seat belts are three-point and are designed with lumbar and shoulder sections. They are designed to secure a passenger at least 1.5 meters tall and weighing more than 36 kilograms, otherwise (for children) the belt will be located too close to the neck and can cause more harm than good.
To transport children, in addition to a child seat, it is legally permitted to use special adapters that allow you to properly secure a small passenger to ensure his safety. These include special belt pads that allow you to secure the belt in the correct position. For children under three, a slightly different design is provided with an additional strap, taking into account physiological and age characteristics.
When such products are used correctly, their effectiveness is very high and in some cases, in life-threatening cases, is comparable to expensive child seats designed for maximum child safety. In addition to all kinds of belt pads that allow you to properly fix the seat belt, there are boosters - a lower stand with handles through which the position of the belt is fixed.
At what age can you leave a child alone in a car?
As mentioned earlier, leaving children under 7 years old in a car without the presence of an adult is prohibited. Therefore, if a child has reached the age of seven, he can already be left alone.
But the courts take into account not only the age, but also the level of development and thinking of the child. In many cases, illnesses are also taken into account. For example, if a minor is diagnosed with mental retardation at the time of the violation, and he is over 7 years old, being left alone may pose a danger to him.
Leaving a child in a car: is it possible to do this?
When driving a car with children, at any moment a situation may arise when the driver needs to make a traffic stop and go somewhere. Many citizens do not think at all about whether it is possible to leave a child alone in a car. And they often do just that.
In fact, such actions can lead to adverse consequences in the form of administrative and even criminal liability. But it's not only that. It is unknown what can happen if a child is left alone in the car.
Analysis of different situations
There are controversial situations when a parent, if leaving a child over 7 years old alone in a car, can still be prosecuted:
- The child is left alone in the car in the sun or severe frost. In the first case, after half an hour the cabin will be too stuffy, and there is a possibility that this will adversely affect his health: for example, he may lose consciousness. In the second case, the car gradually cools down over time, and the interior becomes cold. It is logical that the child will not be able to start it and turn on the stove, so after a while he may freeze and at least get sick;
- The child was left in the car with an adult, the driver went about his business. If subsequently the adult also gets out of the car and something happens to the child, he will bear responsibility, and not the driver who trusted him.
As can be seen from the above, it is better not to leave a child under 7 years old or suffering from serious illnesses of a different nature. Even if the driver does not violate anything, it is recommended to carefully consider every action to ensure safety.
How to punish parents who leave their children in the car?
The current topic caused heated discussion. In Russia, criminal cases are opened, as a rule, if an accident has already occurred. Human rights activists came up with a proposal to hold people accountable in any case, no matter whether the child was injured or not. A fine, deprivation of a driver's license or even parental license - the options sound different.
Throughout the two weeks that have passed since the death of a 9-month-old girl, fresh flowers have been brought to the beach in Khakassia. She sat in the car, parked on a slope, while the adults collected their things. The car suddenly rolled towards the shore, and there was no one to apply the brake.
Exactly the same tragedy happened in the Krasnodar region. Right on the river bank the car got stuck in the mud. The women came out to push her, but 4-month-old Kostya and 2-year-old Vlad remained inside. The car drove off, the mother's nails were torn off, trying to hold it, but it instantly went under water. True, trouble, if a child is left alone in the car, can happen not only to him.
Lyubov Goryunova from Izhevsk still cannot believe that just one step from the entrance she was almost run over by a car driven by a 10-year-old neighbor. While waiting for his father, he decided to play, turned the ignition key and pressed the gas pedal. But the parent brought his son to the hospital to apologize to the pensioner for his own irresponsibility.
“He cries and says: Grandma, I’ll probably go to jail. Me: boy, I won’t put you in jail, if something happens, we’ll ask everything from your dad!” — says the victim Lyubov Goryunova.
For this boy, a car is also a big and exciting toy. The parents left and clearly did not think about where the car standing on a slope would roll if the child suddenly accidentally turned off the parking brake. A comfortable interior only seems like a safe haven. Parents often forget that any car, even with the engine turned off, is a source of increased danger. High temperatures, oil, fuel, electricity. Left unattended, a child can at any moment find himself in a deadly trap.
“The car can be towed, the car can be stolen. Anything can happen to her, and the child remains completely unprotected in the car! Deprivation of rights here is permissible and possible, but in the event of a repeated commission of a similar offense, if measures of a milder nature, say, a large fine, did not help,” says Viktor Pokhmelkin, chairman of the Russian Motorists Movement.
The initiative of the Office of the Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of Russia to prohibit leaving children alone in cars is already being actively discussed. As well as penalties: from a fine of 3-5 thousand rubles to deprivation of a driver’s license.
A terrible incident in Vladimir: a father left three children in the car, a short circuit, a fire, a one-year-old girl died. A month ago in Ulyanovsk, a girl was strangled by a window lifter, and there was no one to save her. And just a few days ago in Krasnoyarsk, a mother left her four-year-old daughter in a car in 35-degree heat. The child was saved by passersby by breaking the glass. Upon returning, the mother was very surprised by the broken glass and a fine of 500 rubles for improper performance of parental responsibilities. According to her, this was not the first time she had done this.
But according to statistics, say, in America, a child dies from heatstroke in a car every ten days. About 600 deaths in 15 years. The creators of the video, where a mother got carried away with shopping in a supermarket and simply forgot about her baby, explain: at a temperature of plus 30 outside, in a closed salon it can be plus 60, or even more. If we add to this the lack of oxygen, then within 15 minutes irreversible changes begin in the brain.
They offered adults an opportunity to try what it feels like for a child left in the heat: they promised to pay one hundred dollars to anyone who could stay in a closed car in the sun for at least ten minutes. No one passed the test.
In America, Australia or Europe, leaving a child in a car can not only get you into big trouble in the form of a fine, but you can easily lose your parental rights and even go to jail. It doesn’t matter whether the children were harmed or not.
A criminal case would be opened against a careless mother in Russia only if a tragedy occurred. No one keeps statistics on how often children are left alone in cars. But based on dozens of reports recently about evacuated cars with a child inside, one can judge how often adults here act thoughtlessly. Many parents are convinced that if you strictly punish for leaving children in danger on wheels, then it will make you think every time.
Opponents of another reason for punishment call for reasonable caution, because you can accept one prohibition, and then you can clarify it endlessly.
“What if for two minutes the mother just ran out to look at the house number? We can leave a child unattended by the river - it’s more dangerous, by the sea, alone in an apartment... Well, then let’s list a huge list of where a child cannot be left alone,” says Larisa Pavlova, head of the public organization “Parental Committee”.
In addition, social activists urge tow truck operators who take cars to impound lots with children to take a closer look inside the cabin. After all, a car is often loaded and taken away much faster than the five minutes allowed by traffic rules for a short stop to, say, buy a bottle of water or diapers. But for now the idea itself - to punish or not - is still being discussed. And from the first of September, motorists in the capital will definitely be able to shame irresponsible parents themselves by sticking a free sticker “Don’t park your child!”
Meanwhile, in countries where it is no longer possible to leave children, they intend to ban locking any animals in cars in the near future. After all, they suffer and die in the heat just as often.
How to challenge a decision to prosecute?
If a decision on administrative liability has already been made, but the driver does not agree with it, to challenge it, you can file a complaint with the head of the traffic police or go to court at the location of the inspection.
It is necessary to provide comprehensive evidence confirming that the child was alone for no more than 5 minutes.
If a citizen is prosecuted under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this becomes more complicated.
Instead of a decision, a sentence is passed, and it can only be appealed before it comes into force through the appellate authority. Here, too, you will need evidence of the innocence of the adult who left the child in danger. Why is it dangerous to leave a child in a car alone Leaving children in a car, why is it dangerous when a child is alone in a car
Prohibition of leaving children in cars according to traffic regulations
State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Lysakov was one of the first to bring up the issue of severe punishment for negligent parents. Its goal, according to the deputy, was to be a significant blow to the pockets of forgetful and irresponsible parents, and another small stream of money would flow into the state, which would grow into a full-fledged river on a national scale. However, representatives of the LDPR faction went even further and proposed even harsher punishment: deprivation of rights for two years or fines in the amount of 100 thousand rubles. It was proposed to introduce a special article that would allow punishment to be carried out on the basis of the code of administrative offenses, but the bill was rejected, despite the presidential order to resolve this issue. The thing is. That in the traffic rules there is no prohibition on leaving a child in a car, and hence a decision on this issue is still impossible. This, at least, was explained to the press by Vyacheslav Lysakov.
In order to legitimize penalties, an adjustment to the traffic rules is required with a strict ban on such actions.
But today it is possible to initiate criminal liability against adult citizens (the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), this is a fine of up to 80 thousand rubles. or detention or two years' imprisonment. This article bears the wording “Leaving in danger.”
