In Irkutsk, a three year old boy quietly left kindergarten 35 and ended up alone on a busy street among cars. Caring drivers blocked traffic and helped the frightened child while his parents were being sought, and at the institution itself, witnesses said, the incident was not taken seriously. The regional child rights commissioner called the incident outrageous and urged a check of child safety in kindergartens.

A three-year-old child left kindergarten No. 35 in Irkutsk. The teachers did not even notice the boy’s absence. Concerned drivers blocked traffic to lead the frightened Vitya off the road.
The little boy left the enclosed grounds of the kindergarten and wandered along Marata Street among cars. The drivers began to figure out what was going on on their own.
Evgenia was driving along Marata Street and saw a car standing in the middle of the road, and next to it a man trying to calm a child who was clearly frightened.
The girl stopped to find out what had happened. The man said he did not know the boy. The child was walking alone along a busy street.
"And he was walking along the street, right on the roadway. And the man, to avoid an accident, stood across the traffic... And then he started talking to this boy. He wanted to take him to the battalion. We spent some time with him looking for his parents nearby. We tried to make contact with him, but he was in such a terribly frightened state, his legs and arms were shaking. He clung to me right away," said Evgenia, an eyewitness.
Evgenia and the second witness began looking for Vitya’s parents. Passersby said there was a kindergarten nearby. The girl went there.
Only after a long inquiry was Viktor identified and called by his first and last name. The institution handled the disappearance without much ceremony.
"I asked the medical worker to call the parents. Then the headmistress said rudely: pour him something to calm him down. That is, there was no attention whatsoever to the child himself," says Evgenia.
However, even after such an outrageous incident, the kindergarten gates remain ajar. It is easy to go out and come in.
The head of the preschool institution sees nothing extraordinary in what happened. Even the child’s mother was given a "softened" version.
- Nothing happened to us. He only made it to the gate and that was all, said Larisa Dil, head of Irkutsk Kindergarten No. 35.
Sveta Semenova, the regional commissioner for children’s rights, has a completely different opinion. She is sure that an inspection of children’s safety in kindergartens is needed.
"This is, of course, an outrageous incident. First of all, the issue of responsibility and punishment should be raised for the people who were directly responsible for this child. That is the teacher. Secondly, there is the issue of conducting a comprehensive inspection of children’s safety," commented Svetlana Semenova, the commissioner for children’s rights in the Irkutsk region.