Fifteen people were killed and more than 20 injured in two deadly car accidents in Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr oblasts on July 20.
One incident involved a minibus with Belarusian tourists returning from Odesa to Gomel, a town in southeast Belarus, that hit a truck parked on the roadside near the village of Kryve Ozero of Mykolaiv Oblast at 5 a.m., the oblast’s police reported on their Facebook page.
Five Belarusian citizens died in the accident and 12 more people were injured, including three with severe traumas who were taken to a nearby hospital, Viacheslav Abroskin, deputy head of the National Police of Ukraine said during a briefing.
An emergency service worker writes notes on the spot of a car accident in Zhytomyr Oblast on July 20. A car accident happened when another minibus leaving Kyiv to Rivne collided with a truck near Zhytomyr city, leaving 10 people dead, including one child, and 10 more injured. (Courtesy of National Police of Ukraine)
Another deadly car accident happened five hours later in Zhytomyr Oblast, when another minibus leaving Kyiv to Rivne collided with a truck near Zhytomyr city, leaving 10 people dead, including one child, and 10 more injured, Zhytomyr Oblast’s national police reported.
The tragedy occurred around 10:40 on a highway by the village of Hlybochytsia, 10 kilometers from Zhytomyr city and 130 kilometers from Kyiv.
According to a preliminary report by the State Emergency Service, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibus (or marshrutka) drove into the back of a DAF truck that was parked on the side of the highway.
Five of the injured, including two gravely injured children – a girl of about 11 years old and a boy of about 13 years old –were hospitalized in Zhytomyr, according to the police.
Altogether, there were 20 people in the minivan: the driver and 19 passengers.
The police and emergency service workers are currently investigating the collision.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko expressed his condolence to the families of those killed in the accident, and the Governor of Zhytomyr Oblast Ihor Hundych announced a day of mourning in his region on July 21.
