Three young women, all students of a Ukrainian military university, have been hospitalized after a drunk driver hit them on the territory of a military garrison in Kyiv, the police have reported.
The accident occurred on Aug. 25, when the students were standing and waiting for their military school uniforms next to an administrative building.
According to accounts by an eyewitness and one of the victims, the driver was cruising around the garrison’s territory in a drunken manner. The gory aftermath suggests that the vehicle ran over the girls more than once, but the details are still being investigated by the police.
The Kyiv prosecutor’s office revealed that the driver’s blood alcohol level was 2.9 parts per million, 14.5 times above the legal limit in Ukraine. The driver has been identified as 46-year-old Volodymyr Holodny, an army major who works in the administrative echelons of the military, according Valeriy Savitskiy, head of the medical division of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The parents of the victims told news website Suspilne that the damage inflicted by Holodny was so severe that surgery was required. Aleksandra, one of the three girls, had one leg amputated up to her knee and the doctors are currently fighting to save the other one. Another girl, Tatiana, also lost a leg.
A medical volunteer at the military hospital stated that the third girl, Halyna, had suffered less damage than the other girls. Doctors are currently fighting to save her legs.
“At the moment, doctors are considering the possible need for a limb amputation,” wrote Plast, a youth scouting organization in Ukraine which Halyna was a member, on Facebook on Aug. 26. “We need your help — financial and informational.”
On the morning of Aug. 26, the medical department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine gave an official update on the status of the three students: “They are all in a conscious state and have no trouble breathing on their own. The girls are not in any immediate danger, and they have been supplied with all the necessary medical support from our doctors.”
Currently, Holodny is being held in a pre-trial detention center and faces up to eight years of prison for violating Article 286 of the Criminal Code: “violation of traffic safety rules.” He could also be further deprived of his driving license for up to three years, according to the Ukrainian police.
