Translated material
Road Accident Day
Seven German citizens died due to the fault of Russian drivers
Two major car accidents involving passenger buses, in both cases carrying foreigners, occurred yesterday in Russia. In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday issued a message expressing condolences to the families and friends of the victims.Ten people died as a result of a collision between a Volvo truck and a Mercedes bus on the Kurgan-Chelyabinsk highway. Another 25 people were injured. All of them were delivered to the central district hospital of Yurgamysh, Kurgan region and to the Russian Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopedics named after Academician Ilizarov.
The accident occurred around five o'clock in the morning, when there was thick fog on the highway. Due to weather conditions, the bus traveling along the Moscow-Barnaul route was traveling at low speed. Suddenly, an oncoming cargo truck loaded with metal structures and heading from Krasnoyarsk to Nizhny Novgorod jumped into his lane. As a result of a head-on collision, the bus overturned and fell into a ditch. The Kurgan Region Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that the drivers of both cars died. According to preliminary data, six people died on the spot, four more in the hospital. Seven passengers were hospitalized in serious condition. Rescuers note that six German citizens, including children, were among the dead. Those hospitalized are also mostly Germans. In a conversation with the doctors, they reported that there were former Russians on the bus, only one person was a native of Germany. All of them came to Russia on vacation or on business. Press secretary of the regional governor Dmitry Serov said that passengers who received minor injuries in an accident will be sent for rehabilitation to the regional sanatorium "Lesniki". Traffic police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Internal Affairs Directorate worked at the scene of the emergency. Investigators believe the culprit of the tragedy is a 24-year-old truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel.
And at about nine o'clock in the morning, a similar emergency occurred near St. Petersburg - on the Pulkovskoe highway at the turn to Pushkin. A tourist bus carrying 23 German and two Dutch citizens, as well as a driver and a tour guide (both Russian citizens), collided with a garbage truck. As a result, a 69-year-old tourist from Germany died and 21 people were taken to hospitals. Two of them, according to doctors, are in serious condition. According to the traffic police, this time the culprit of the collision was most likely the bus driver, who, when making a left turn, did not allow the MAZ going straight ahead to pass.