Driver Blamed for Accident on Snowy Road Despite Deep Ruts

A Yekaterinburg woman named Elena was involved in a traffic accident, damaging her own and another car. According to the woman, she was not at all to blame for what happened. The incident occurred during the day on December 25, 2025, on Taganskaya Street, in a narrow passage between houses No. 55a and 53a.

Elena was driving her Honda on a snowy road when suddenly the wheels slipped out of the ruts. The crossover became uncontrollable: it drove diagonally and crashed into a parked Opel. As a result, the cars had damaged bumpers and fenders.

“I believe the accident happened because the road simply wasn«t cleared. The rut depth reached 15 centimeters (Elena and her husband measured it themselves. — Ed.). I told the traffic inspector about this on the phone and noted it in my explanations when we went to the traffic police,” the driver said.

The woman had the most complaints about the traffic police officers. According to her, they refused to go to the scene and draw up a report on unsatisfactory road conditions. In Elena«s opinion, this automatically made her the guilty party in the accident.

“I believe my rights to an objective and comprehensive investigation of the accident circumstances were grossly violated,” the motorist exclaimed. “The inspectors, when recording the circumstances, refused to document the road conditions. Now I don«t know how to go to court for compensation for the damage to my car. I have no evidence except my own measurements. But I am not a specialist in this field and don»t know how to do it properly.”

“I was left alone with my unresolved problem, instead of them taking measurements and drawing up a document about the irregularities. The ruts create a dangerous situation on the road not just for me! Pedestrians walk there, including children. If nothing is done, the ruts will just remain on our roads,” Elena concluded.

Responses from Officials and Police

After the incident, the motorist wrote letters to various authorities requesting an additional investigation into her case. After some time, a response came from the administration of the Ordzhonikidzevsky District. They reported that on January 16 (20 days after the accident) they visited the very section where the woman had the accident. It was recorded that the road was covered with snow.

“A fact of untimely clearing of snow and ice from the roadway and sidewalk was identified. A visual inspection established that the rut in the courtyard passage in places exceeds five centimeters,” the letter stated.

The district administration also noted that the rut was recorded by a precinct inspector. However, they emphasized that city authorities are not responsible for what happened. The passage where the accident occurred turned out to be territory assigned to local office buildings. Officials recommended addressing complaints to their managing companies.

Finally, a month after the incident, an official response came from the city traffic police. They also reported that they went to the site to examine the road condition. Nothing was said about ruts in the letter, but the police routinely recommended that Elena contact those responsible for maintaining the intra-block passage.

“Regarding the organization of traffic on the adjacent territory, you need to contact the relevant managing company or the chairman of the homeowners« association of the apartment building,” was noted in the letter from the traffic police.

Do We Only Care About Ruts When Disaster Strikes?

Auto lawyer Oleg Taratukhin believes that motorists are often completely defenseless against bureaucracy and have no real opportunity to recover damages from those who neglect road cleaning.

In his opinion, there is a quite obvious problem when registering such cases with the traffic police: drivers do not receive documents with objective recording of the accident conditions.

“Passages, just like roads, must be maintained in proper condition. Cars drive both there and here, and standards must be observed,” the auto lawyer noted. “When a driver is told that «measurements are not part of our obligations,» this leads to distortion of the accident circumstances. The driver who is thrown out of the rut automatically becomes guilty, while the fault of those who maintain the section does not arise at all.”

According to Oleg Taratukhin, laws and regulations need to be more carefully regulated to prevent such cases.

“Suppose that in the accident on Taganskaya, not just metal was damaged, but people. In that case, the traffic police crew would have come to the scene and measured the rut. Why is it that for traffic inspectors to do their job, someone must necessarily suffer?” the auto lawyer wondered.

We often write about controversial situations that motorists find themselves in. Read, for example, how in Yekaterinburg a girl was punished after her car was rammed by a reckless driver who bypassed traffic by driving on the opposite lane. In another case, a driver parked near a store faced expensive repairs when a gate leaf collapsed on his car.

Find all news about roads and transport in the special section.