The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office has overturned illegal decisions by traffic police officers to bring citizens to administrative responsibility.

As a result of the intervention by the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, two unlawful decisions by traffic police officers to bring Vitebsk residents Z. and L. to administrative responsibility for traffic violations have been overturned.

As it turned out during the inspection based on Z.'s appeal, in accordance with the decision of the traffic police inspector, the driver, while driving a vehicle, upon encountering an obstacle that he could have detected, failed to take measures to reduce speed, up to stopping the vehicle, as a result of which he drove into a pothole, damaging his own car.

Z.'s actions were qualified under Part 5 of Article 18.18 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, the decision to impose an administrative penalty was made in accordance with Part 3 of Article 10.3 of the Code of Procedural and Administrative Offenses, and he was subjected to an administrative penalty in the form of a warning.

When considering the driver's complaint, the prosecutor's office established that his arguments were not properly assessed by the traffic police inspector during the administrative proceedings. According to the applicant's explanation, he did not see the pothole on the road because it was filled with water, and he considered the puddle formed in place of the pothole to be insignificant. After the accident, he independently called the traffic police officers to document the vehicle damage for subsequent compensation of the amount of damage caused.

In violation of Part 3 of Article 10.3 of the Code of Procedural and Administrative Offenses, the decision was made in the absence of Z.'s admission of guilt in committing the offense and consent to the application of an administrative penalty without drawing up a report.

Based on the results of the complaint review, the applicant's arguments were deemed justified, and the Regional Prosecutor's Office overturned the decision on the administrative offense case. The case against Z. was subsequently terminated due to the absence of an administrative offense.

By the decision of the traffic police inspector, citizen L. was brought to administrative responsibility under Part 3 of Article 18.18 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for violating parking rules for a vehicle weighing over 3.5 tons outside a specially designated area and was subjected to an administrative penalty in the form of a fine of 160 rubles.

Following the review of the complaint, the regional prosecutor's office established that the applicant had not violated traffic regulations. The vehicle was parked in an area marked by sign 5.15 (parking area) and plate 7.6.1 (parking method), which do not prohibit the parking of vehicles weighing over 3.5 tons. These circumstances were confirmed by photographic materials attached to the complaint.

The regional prosecutor's office has revoked the decision on the administrative offense case. The case against Z. was subsequently dismissed due to the absence of an administrative offense. An internal investigation is being conducted regarding the traffic police inspector.

Senior Prosecutor of the Department for Supervision of Legislation and Legality of Legal Acts A.A. Denisov