Three-year suspended prison sentence for driver who hit student at crosswalk in 2021. Prosecutors consider the sentence too lenient and will appeal the sentence

On July 28, 2023, a sentence was pronounced by the Buiucani Court of Chisinau on a criminal case brought by the Prosecutor’s Office of Chisinau municipality.

Thus, according to the sentence, the defendant was found guilty of violating traffic safety rules, a violation that caused a serious injury to the body (art. 264 para. (a) of the Criminal Code), and the sentence was imposed in the form of imprisonment for a term of 3 years, with suspension of the execution of the sentence for a probation period of 3 years, if during this period the defendant does not commit a new offence and, by complying with the conditions of probation, will justify the trust placed in him.

The court also ordered the civil party to pay the sum of 500,000 lei as biological damage caused by the offence.

The prosecutors consider the sentence too lenient and will appeal against it.

According to the indictment submitted by the prosecutors, the defendant, on 10 August 2021, at approximately 15:50, driving a car on Valea Crucii Street, in the direction of Dacia Street, Chisinau municipality, did not show caution in traffic, violating several provisions of the Road Traffic Regulation, including paragraph 11 lit. f), which states that the driver of the vehicle is obliged: at pedestrian crossings with undirected traffic, give way to pedestrians who are on the roadside and intend to cross, and to pedestrians crossing the road on the side of the carriageway in the direction of travel of the vehicle, if a vehicle has stopped or slowed down before the pedestrian crossing, drivers of other vehicles travelling in adjacent lanes may continue their journey only after having ensured that there are no pedestrians on the crossing and, as a result, collided with the pedestrian, who was crossing the carriageway on the pedestrian crossing with undirected traffic, from the right to the left relative to the movement of the means of transport, driven by the defendant.

The victim, who turned out to be a student, sustained serious, life-threatening injuries.

The sentence is not final and can be appealed within 15 days to the Chisinau Court of Appeal.

Note: A person accused of committing a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court decision.