Reckless and irresponsible driving continues to claim innocent lives in Ukraine. The latest horrific case occurred in the southern port city of Odesa on the evening of Sept. 8, when a 27-year-old man drove a BMW at high speed through a red traffic light and crashed into a grey Skoda, his car then ricocheting into a tram stop with people waiting.
Two people died at the scene, and four injured people were taken to hospital, the press service of the National Police in Odesa reported on its website on Sept. 9.
One of the injured, whom local media reported to have died in an ambulance on the way to hospital, is still in the intensive care department but alive, police added.
The BMW driver was detained and now faces trial for reckless driving and violating road safety rules. He faces from five to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
Although police identified him only as a 27-year-old BMW driver, media present at the scene of the crash reported that the driver was a local street racer named Oleg Semerenko.
Social media users found photos of a BMW with the same number plate seen in numerous illegal street racing competitions in Odesa.
Odesa news website Dumskaya.net, which was streaming video from the place of the accident, as was the Kyiv Operativniy news website, reported that soon after the BMW hit the people at the bus stop, Semerenko drove 150 meters more and then stopped at a nearby tram line.
Witnesses rushed to the car, dragged the driver out and started beating him and then dragged him over to see the result of the crash.
Semerenko was reportedly initially taken to hospital, but then soon after arrested and put in a pre-trial detention center.
The public’s fury is understandable; this accident is the fourth such car crash causing multiple fatalities in three months.
Five children and one adult were killed and 12 more people injured when a cargo truck hit a minibus carrying 20 passengers on a highway near the village of Kamianske in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, on Aug. 10..
In July, 15 people were killed and more than 20 injured in two deadly car accidents in Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr oblasts in one day.
And on Sept. 8, the same day the street racer killed two in Odesa, a Chevrolet driver under the influence of alcohol hit and killed a woman in Kyiv. After that, he hit the metal fence of a gardening center, staggered out of the car, and then fell asleep in nearby bushes.
According to the official statistics published by the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, more than 1,230 people were killed and more than 12,800 injured in 68,000 car accidents across Ukraine in the first six months of 2018.
Since 2015 more than 7,000 people have died in car accidents.
Coincidentally, the government has adopted stricter road safety rules and speed limits of no more than 50 kilometers per hour in cities after a car crash similar to the Odesa one.
Another street racing fan,Olena Zaitseva, a 20-year-old student from Kharkiv, drove through a red light at high speed in a luxury Lexus RX350 in Kharkiv city center on Oct.18. She hit a Volkswagen Touareg on a road junction and her car then plowed into a crowd of pedestrians on a sidewalk, killing five and injuring six people, including a pregnant woman.
Almost a year after the incident, Zaitseva, who faces 10 years in prison, is still being held in a pre-trial detention center, but has not yet been convicted.
Her trial is still ongoing. Investigators have let her visit hospital for treatment.
A black BMW, that hit bus stop and killed two people in Odesa on Sep. 8, takes part in a street racing competition in Odesa. (Courtesy)
