A man shocked drivers and caused a traffic accident on the capital's Blvd. "Tsar Boris III" with his actions a few days ago. The video, distributed on social networks, shows him jumping in front of passing cars and throwing himself under the tires of one of the cars. Fortunately, all this passed without serious consequences and casualties on Monday, and today it became clear that he committed suicide. The man jumped from a high floor in the "Mladost" residential area. This is certainly an atypical situation on the road when a person throws himself under your car, but what can it lead to and what should we do… Lawyer Elitsa Buenova spoke to FACTI.
- Lawyer Beunova, a few days ago a man panicked drivers because he threw himself under their tires. The situation on the road is atypical, but what could it lead to?
- In this case, we have a man who is either mentally ill or under the influence of heavy drugs. His motives for doing this may be different. The problem in this situation is that in addition to committing suicide or self-harm, he could get the drivers into serious “adventures“ and quite unpleasant ones. In this case, there are cameras at the intersection, but if there were no cameras or witnesses and a driver killed him, lawsuits and a bunch of arguments would start.
The driver will be tried for causing death,
and the relatives of the deceased, who otherwise allowed him to fall into this situation, will file claims for compensation. Will he be able to prove his innocence... This will depend on a bunch of factors.
- How should drivers react in such a situation...
- According to Art. 20, Para. 2, Clause 2 of the Road Traffic Act, drivers are obliged to reduce speed and, if necessary, stop when there is a danger to traffic. As soon as they see a person on the road - regardless of whether it is in a permitted or unauthorized place, drivers must know that they are a danger to traffic and are obliged to stop and pass them slowly and at the appropriate distance.
In the event that someone jumps in front of their car, they are obliged to stop.
Any maneuver in this situation – whether turning left or right, a rescue maneuver is being conducted and they can only undertake it if they are 100% sure that they will not cause harm to anyone else.
If, in order to avoid a collision with a person who jumped in front of their car, they swerve and kill another person on the sidewalk or in another car that they collided with as a result of the rescue maneuver, the drivers will be tried.
If they crash into a pole and die, the crazy person will not be tried because he is not criminally liable, but if they kill someone, they will be tried for their death. However, if they hit and kill the person who jumped in front of their car and can prove that it was intentional and they could not have prevented the impact by stopping, then they will be acquitted, if an indictment is filed against them in court at all.
- Who has what rights on the road in such a situation…
- Unfortunately,
Bulgarian legislation does not talk about rights, only about obligations.
A pedestrian does not have the right to be on the road and jump in front of cars, and drivers do not have the right to hit him, if they could have perceived him in time as a danger and if they had to stop until he moved out of the road.
- What sanction is the man who does this subject to?
- I really have a hard time saying whether he is subject to any sanction at all, even if we assume that he is a person who is mentally fit to bear responsibility. I rather think that this is some kind of hooliganism. And in case he is mentally ill, one should think about whether his relatives should not be held liable for defamation.
- In the case we are talking about, there are cameras on the boulevard that prove that the drivers are not at fault. If this happens in a place where there are no cameras… Should we rely only on witnesses…
- First, let me clarify -
if someone had killed him, from what would have been seen on the cameras, it would not have been possible to conclude that the driver was innocent at all.
As I said, if a driver sees a danger on the road, and this pedestrian was obviously such the whole time, he should slow down, and if necessary, stop.
That is, when you see a madman running on the road and you don't stop, which is why you hit him or he jumps in front of your car, you may not be able to prove that you are innocent, although we all want it to be that way.
For your own protection, I have always urged drivers to wear dash cams. This is the only way in such a situation to prove your innocence or at least reduce your guilt. A man recently wrote to me that a girl who was waiting at the bus stop jumped in front of his car right in front of him. He got away only thanks to the recording from his dash cam.
Contrary to popular belief that recordings are not valid in court, this is not true.
We put them through a video technical examination to prove that they have not been manipulated and the auto technical examination is prepared based on them.
- It is clear that the driver in this case is not at fault, but the stress he is subjected to...
- As I said, it is not at all clear that he is not at fault. On the contrary. If he had killed him, he would definitely have been guilty, because you can clearly see this person walking down the street and having a problem. So this stress would be incomparable to the stress that would follow from here on out. I know that people will find it quite unfair, but just because a person is running down the road doesn't mean we can run them over, right?
- Have you had a case like this in your practice…
- I have had a variety of cases in my practice. Identical to this is a driver who hit and killed a minor mentally ill child in a village. Everyone jumped to defend the driver against the “local idiot“, who, mind you, has no right to be on that bike at all, but I won the case and the driver was convicted for the reasons listed above.
I have also handled a traffic accident case in which a drunk driver of a car hit a drunk pedestrian who was crossing the road diagonally. We convicted him too.
I have also had a case of a dead drunk who fell and may have been asleep in the middle of the road. One passes by him and kills him. We convicted him. He could have perceived him as a danger, he should have gone around him or gotten out to see what it was - in case he was a human, but he chose to bleat and run over him, which is why he bore his criminal responsibility.
I also had a case in which a drunk was walking down the road in the dark of the day. The driver drives at excessive speed, hits him and kills him. Another case in which the victim was most likely walking in the bushes for a short time and on the way out he crossed the driver's path, the car hit him and killed him. These drivers were also convicted. Therefore, drivers should know something very important –
When driving outside the city, anything could be a foreseeable obstacle – a person or an animal, or an idiot who abandoned his damaged vehicle in the middle of the road without securing it.
Therefore, there is a requirement for drivers to drive at a speed that is consistent with the lighting in front of their headlights, so that they can perceive the danger in time and stop. If on long roads this speed is around and over 100 km/h, because it depends on the headlights, on short roads it is 60-70 km/h. And although the speed limit outside the city is 90 km/h, if they drive on short roads, they have to reduce it to about 65 km/h if they don't want to be convicted of someone's death.
But I also worked on a case in which a crazy person literally jumped under the tires of a car driving outside the city on a main road. At that time, there were witnesses, and from his injuries it was clear that the pedestrian jumped at the last moment, and the case against the driver was dismissed.
So there are many cases, and many options. The important thing is to be careful on the road, to monitor the traffic situation and to consider the speed at which we drive. And for our own safety, it is good to install video recorders.