In a Russian city, a case was opened against traffic cops who mistook a stroke for intoxication

Roman Kochurov, originally from Kamyshlov, worked as a driver of a heavy-duty Volvo tractor at a local plant for the production of mineral water and soft drinks.

On January 5, he took bottles of mineral water to Tyumen, unloaded and returned to his native Kamyshlov. It is 180 kilometers from Tyumen along the federal highway R-351.

Two factory cars went to Tyumen that day.

Roman unloaded first. At the 158th kilometer of the route, the second driver caught up with him. He noticed that a heavy truck ahead was sliding onto the curb, raising a cloud of snow dust. I saw a small traffic jam ahead.

He chose safe mode, went into the left lane, went ahead, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the car that was slowing down was Roman’s Volvo tractor.

Roman drove slowly, along the very edge of the road. A colleague contacted him on the radio and asked why, Romka, are you dusty? But he didn’t answer him.

The partner got the impression that Roman was slowing down to park. And he, without thinking anything bad, moved on.

It was 11.30 on the clock. Roman had 18 kilometers to go to Kamyshlov.

The cabin ran into a snowdrift when braking. The trailer drifted into the adjacent lane, where at that time a KamAZ truck tractor with a Tonar semi-trailer was passing. The accident was minor. The trailer of the Volvo tractor touched the semi-trailer of the Tonar dump truck. There were no casualties.

The driver of the KamAZ was Yuri Polyaev. He was traveling from Tyumen to Bogdanovich for crushed stone. And he shared that he immediately put up the signs, as expected, and approached the cabin of the Volvo tractor. The driver’s side door was in a snowdrift. He approached the cabin from the passenger door. I knocked on it, there was no answer. Then he climbed over the snowdrift to the driver’s door and knocked again. Roman somehow miraculously managed to press the button, the glass opened, but he could not speak. He was simply rocking from side to side.

Yuri Polyaev dialed the emergency phone number “112”. It was at 11.45. Information about the accident was received by the duty station of the Pyshminsky Department of Internal Affairs. And quite quickly, road services and a traffic police car, which was servicing this section of the highway, arrived at the scene of the accident.

The dispatch service processed the driver’s call according to its own algorithm. Since the traffic police patrol crew, which was located nearby, went to the scene, all instructions had to come from him.

Road services, as Yuri Polyaev said, took all measures to free up the lane for traffic. We quickly pulled the Volvo tractor trailer to the side of the road.

Roman was in the car all this time. He did not react to anything and did not respond to questions from the traffic police officers. They took Polyaev’s documents and said: “Wait, we’ll get the registration done.” An hour passed, two hours… The driver reminded him that he needed to go to Bogdanovich for crushed stone. They told him again: “Wait, now the driver of the Volvo tractor will come to his senses and sign…” Polyaev said that in this case, traffic police officers should either conduct an examination or call an ambulance.

At 14.51, the dispatcher of the mineral water production plant called Roman Kochurov’s phone. Using the beacon, she determined that the car had been standing motionless for a long time and became worried.

A traffic police officer answered the call and began to tell the dispatcher what kind of drivers you have. Why are you releasing them onto the line in this condition? The woman told him that Roman Kochurov is a very disciplined and punctual driver. Nothing of the kind was observed behind him. And she asked for help for Roman. To which the traffic police officer said: “Yes, we will provide assistance.”

The dispatcher looked at what cars were traveling in this direction. And she asked one of the truck drivers named Oleg on the radio to stop and see what was happening to Roman.

Oleg stopped and immediately approached the cabin of the Volvo tractor. The engine was turned off, the stove did not work. And it was minus 20 degrees outside. Oleg shared that Roman was pale and there was no steam coming from his mouth. He started to bother him and saw that his colleague was alive. But his gaze is empty, absent. Roman was sitting on the floor of the cabin, wearing socks. Oleg touched his legs, they were icy. The trucker turned on the autonomous heater, took a jacket from his sleeping place, and wrapped Roman up as best he could.

The dialogue with traffic inspectors was heated.

Oleg got into an argument with them. The traffic police officers considered that Roman was “drunk or high on salt.” Oleg shouted, how did they determine this? Did you carry out an examination? I told them to either take Roman for examination or call an ambulance. When the cabin of the Volvo tractor warmed up, he approached the traffic cops and asked: “Have you called an ambulance?” They answered: “We’re calling.” Relying on the traffic police officers, Oleg continued moving along his route. This was around 15.10-15.15.

After 16 hours, a passenger car with a mechanic and drivers drove up to the scene of the accident from the mineral water production plant. A heavy truck also arrived to pull the emergency vehicle out of the snowdrift.

By this time, Roman was already in the traffic police car. The second participant in the accident, Yuri Polyaev, shared that when they carried Roman, they could not completely put the jacket on him, because his right hand was twisted, his arm was bent to his stomach and could not be straightened. They only put the jacket on his left side. They put warm slippers on his feet that Roman had in the car.

The traffic police officers who arrived at the site told the factory emergency team to take Roman into their car.

When colleagues were carrying Roman, one of the drivers, who previously worked for the Ministry of Emergency Situations, noticed signs of a stroke in him. Roman’s right side of his face was distorted. The right hand did not move. Addressing everyone, he said: “He has a stroke, we need to call an ambulance.” To which they told him: “If you want, call.”

The traffic police officers, after Roman was overloaded, drove off. An hour later, a team from the Kamyshlov highway point of the Territorial Center for Disaster Medicine arrived, and traffic inspectors arrived again.

Doctors assessed the impairment of Roman’s consciousness, speech and motor functions and began intensive therapy, which made it possible to evacuate the truck driver to the Kamyshlovsky central regional hospital in a stable condition, without deterioration in his health.

Suspecting Roman had a stroke, doctors decided to send him to the nearest primary vascular department – to the Irbit Central City Hospital, where the driver underwent a CT scan. The study confirmed hemorrhagic stroke – the most dangerous cerebrovascular accident.

After a teleconsultation with neurosurgeons at the Regional Vascular Center, Roman was transported by ambulance to Sverdlovsk Regional Clinical Hospital No. 1.

Roman, who was in a state of moderate severity, was admitted to the intensive care ward. The website of SOKB No. 1 states that upon admission the driver could barely move his arm and leg on the right side and had difficulty pronouncing his first and last name. In addition, doctors diagnosed parainfluenza in a truck driver who had been sitting in an icy cabin for several hours. No alcohol or any prohibited substances were found in Roman’s blood.

To everyone’s joy, the trucker began to recover quickly. Doctors noted good positive dynamics. Roman began to walk independently, but he still had a speech disorder. No surgical intervention was required. The doctors noted that they could return to this issue later, when the hematoma that had formed in the left frontal lobe had resolved.

After being discharged from the hospital, Roman went to a specialized sanatorium. Now he is already home.

The truck driver has 26 years of driving experience. During all this time he never had an accident. Roman has two children. Relatives say that he never complained about his health. He led an active lifestyle; the day before the incident, the whole family went to the skating rink.

But, as doctors say, such an acute disruption of the blood supply to the brain can occur in a person at any age.

“Doctors have such a concept as a “therapeutic window of opportunity” for stroke,” says lawyer Sergei Teterin. “This is that precious time, that period of 2-2.5 hours, when it is important to promptly seek emergency medical help. In the case of Roman, this time was lost.

The state, in turn, did everything to help the victims in such cases. On the federal highway there are emergency response centers and disaster medicine units. The closest place to the accident site was 30 kilometers away. Everything could have turned out differently if doctors had been called immediately.

As MK was told in the road safety promotion department of the State Traffic Inspectorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Sverdlovsk Region, doctors conduct classes in all departments on a regular basis. “But traffic inspectors don’t make diagnoses. Doctors do this.”

What happened to the truck driver is beyond the bounds of humanity. If one of the drivers had not turned on the autonomous heating in the cabin of the Volvo tractor, Roman could have simply frozen. As experts say, a person at minus 20 degrees below zero can die from hypothermia, depending on the individual characteristics of the body, after 1.5-2 hours, when the cabin has completely cooled down.

In fact, Roman was in a life- and health-threatening condition all this time. And at the same time, traffic police officers managed to draw up two protocols against Roman Kochurov and issue two decisions to bring him to administrative responsibility.

The first protocol and resolution was drawn up for the fact that Roman was allegedly driving a car without wearing a seat belt. And the second protocol and resolution is about illegal parking.

Literally on the second day after hospitalization, Roman received messages from State Services about the need to pay fines.

Investigative authorities carried out an investigation for a month. On February 13, Roman Kochurov received a notification that a criminal case had been opened against traffic police officers under Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (negligence).