Winter has arrived in most regions of Russia. According to the Hydrometeorological Center, more than 80% of the country is covered with snow. This means that drivers should have prepared their cars for winter by changing summer tires to winter tires. According to the law, it is forbidden to use summer tires from December 1 in the country. For this violation, drivers face a fine of 500 rubles or a verbal warning from the inspector. But what happens if a driver gets into an accident on summer tires in winter, what responsibility does he face?
Consequences of an accident on summer tires
When considering an accident in court, according to lawyer Yulia Shpagina, various circumstances are considered. Tires out of season cannot be the only cause of an accident. In most cases, courts consider incidents with a complex of other factors, such as alcohol intoxication or speeding. Failure to comply with tire requirements is not considered a separate basis for guilt.
As an independent and sole proof of the perpetrators' guilt, it is not applied, since it is problematic to prove the existence of a direct causal relationship between the fact of an accident and the mere violation of the seasonality of tires, in practice it is necessarily combined with other violations.
If there are no other violations, the driver can only be brought to administrative responsibility. But if there are two violations, for example, drunk driving and with summer tires, then the driver will most likely be punished only for the more serious one - drunk driving.
Auto lawyer Mikhail Nikitin emphasizes that, first of all, the court establishes whether traffic rules were observed and whether there is a connection between violations and the incident. The use of non-seasonal tires is less critical compared to violations such as speeding or failure to comply with the rules when maneuvering at intersections.
So, in the winter of 2024, the driver was found guilty of violating traffic rules, driving a car while intoxicated, which led to the death of a person through negligence.
The driver's car had summer tires on the rear axle. He was speeding, lost control, the car overturned several times, and the passenger, who was not wearing a seat belt, died.
The court concluded that the presence of off-season tires, along with other circumstances, played a role in the accident. Considering the lawyer's complaint, the examination and the court noted that the driver ignored paragraph 10.1 of the traffic rules and did not drive at a speed that could have prevented the accident.
The impact of tire seasonality on insurance payments
In judicial practice, there are no cases where a driver would have to compensate for damage solely for not changing tires. Judges consider this violation in the context of other factors that caused the accident.
However, if the examination shows that it was the summer tires that caused, for example, the car to skid and collide with another road user, the driver may be found guilty and obliged to pay damages to the victims.
It is important to understand that this will not affect payments under OSAGO. With CASCO, the situation is different: insurers may refuse compensation if they consider the use of summer tires to be the cause of the accident.
Courts in civil cases appoint auto-technical and trasological examinations, which examine the traces of tire treads and the length of the braking distance. Based on the data obtained, the court assesses the contribution of each participant in the accident to the incident.
Yulia Shpagina noted that there were cases when drivers who did not change tires were denied compensation under CASCO. For example, the Moscow City Court in 2023 overturned the decisions of lower courts on the payment of damages to a motorist who crashed into the automatic gates of a shopping center parking lot. The driver claimed that the accident occurred due to ice, but the court decided that he was to blame, since he did not change summer tires to winter tires, which could have helped to avoid a collision.
