Another victim of a horrific car crash in Kharkiv died in one of the city’s hospitals on Oct. 26, bringing the death toll from the Oct. 18 incident to six people.
Twenty-four-year-old Diana Berchenko, who was with her sister on a sidewalk in Kharkiv when the incident occurred, was had been extremely seriously injured.
The crash occurred when 20-year-old Olena Zaitseva drove through a stop light at speed in her Lexus RX350 and hit a Volkswagen Touareg at a road junction. Zaitseva’s SUV, on its side, then plowed into a crowd of pedestrians on a sidewalk, killing five of them immediately, and seriously injuring six others.
Berchenko suffered numerous fractures, a ruptured lung, and severe head injuries. She died a day after her sister Oksana, 27, woke up from a coma, still too weak to be told that her husband and sister are among the dead.
Zaitseva was arrested for two months with no right to bail, by a court in Kharkiv on Oct. 20. She is the adopted daughter of Vasyl Zaitsev, a prominent Kharkiv businessman and CEO of the Ukrenergochormet company.
While in court, Zaitseva refused to give any explanations about the crash, saying only that she “was really sorry that people were injured.”
“I really hope that their families will finally accept financial help from my family. That’s all that I am thinking about now,” Zaitseva said.
Previously Zaitseva’s stepfather Zaitsev told journalists that she had never violated the traffic rules. However, during the court hearing, prosecutor Maxym Blokhin said Zaitseva had violated road safety rules six times in the two years since she had obtained her driving license.
If found guilty, Zaitseva could face up to 10 years in prison. The driver of the Volkswagen Touareg is a witness in the case.
