A 17-year-old girl died on Saturday evening, 25 July, in a road accident in Stolniceni, Ungheni district. According to preliminary police information, the young woman was driving a Viper-model ATV on a regional road, heading from the village of Stolniceni toward the neighbouring village of Bulhac — both in the commune of Cioropcani. At one point she lost control of the vehicle, which ran off the roadway and slammed violently into an electricity pole. The girl died on the spot.
Police have opened a criminal case and are investigating the circumstances of the accident. Investigators state that they will also establish “how the minor came into possession of the ATV and who allowed her access to the vehicle” — a line of inquiry that concerns the adults around the teenager, not only the moment of impact.
What the law actually says
Here things are less intuitive than they seem. Age, in itself, does not make driving illegal: an ATV falls under licence subcategory B1, and B1 can be obtained from the age of 16, according to Government Decision no. 181/2022. In other words, a 17-year-old may legally hold a licence for such a vehicle.
What the investigation will clarify are, in fact, two other things: whether the teenager held a B1 licence and whether that ATV was type-approved and registered for public roads. Many off-road models, bought for rides around the yard or across fields, are not permitted on public roads.
If the answer to either of these questions is “no”, the law does not look first at the driver, but at the person who entrusted her with the vehicle. The Contravention Code penalizes handing over the driving of a vehicle to a person without the right to drive with a fine of 3,000 to 4,500 lei, and for parents there is a separate article, which punishes failure to fulfil the obligation to supervise a child.
A context that is getting worse
The accident comes against a backdrop of rising figures. In Ungheni district, in 2025, road accidents injured 44 people and killed five — compared with 23 injured in 2024, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The number of people injured almost doubled in a single year. The territorial data are not, however, broken down by age or by type of vehicle, so a separate official statistic on ATV accidents does not exist.
The police investigation continues. The exact legal classification of the criminal case has not, for now, been made public.