UDK: 343.214

Irina Ig. Nagornaya - Candidate of Law, Associate Professor, Russian University of Transport (MIIT), Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Leaving a child unattended inside a car is a crucial issue that requires adequate legal solutions. It may be done intentionally, or a child may be forgotten, which is explained by peculiarities of a human brain when solving everyday problems. One of the main risks of leaving a child inside a car is a heat stroke. The Russian Federation has a legislative basis for bringing to legal responsibility for this act. If a child under 7 years of age is not harmed and there is no real threat of harm, there is a possible liability under the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. However, a 500 ruble fine under Part 1 of Article 12.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is not an adequate punishment for those who commit the act more than once. There should be envisaged a more severe penalty or discussed a possibility to introduce a crime with an administrative prejudice. In other cases, criminal liability may arise for leaving in danger (child endangerment), causing serious bodily harm or death by negligence, if the subject did not act with direct or indirect intent to cause harm. To establish intent, it is necessary to clarify the motives, the presence of special knowledge about the consequences of leaving a child, and the evidence that the situation is dangerous. A study of foreign experience shows the need to provide more comprehensive legal protection for persons who remove a child from a car in cause of an immediate threat to his or her life or health. It is necessary to consolidate the provisions on imaginary extreme necessity in the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. In order to prevent the said actions, it is crucial to provide more information about the danger of leaving a child inside a car, and to prevent the unintentional leaving of a child, it is necessary to use technical means of notification about the need to check the back seat of the car.

Keywords: leaving a child inside a car; leaving in danger (endangerment); violation of parking rules; extreme necessity; causing death by negligence; heat stroke; indirect intent.

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Nagornaya I.I. Leaving a child inside a car: legal liability and crime prevention (comparative legal analysis // Transport law and security. 2025; (1(53)):91―105.