Eyewitness Recounts Deadly Ambulance Collision in Perm Krai
On January 30, on a highway in Perm Krai, an ambulance collided with a foreign-made car. The driver and three patients died. A reader who was passing by at the time of the accident contacted the editorial office. She told what she saw before the ambulance and police arrived at the scene of the accident.
Yesterday, January 30, on the «Karagay — Kudymkar» highway, an ambulance «Lada Largus» from the Karagay Central District Hospital, which was returning four patients after hemodialysis from Kudymkar to Karagay, was involved in an accident. According to police, the «Lada» went to overtake, entered the oncoming lane, and crashed into a foreign-made car. Three patients and the ambulance driver died, another patient and the driver of the foreign-made car survived and were taken to the hospital.
A reader of 59.RU contacted the editorial office and said that she was driving on this highway from Kudymkar. According to her, the accident occurred on a bridge over the Inva River. A woman in a pink sweater in a black jeep passed her car and went to overtake, and after some time, already at the bridge over the river, the reader saw that the jeep and the «Largus» had collided.
The reader and her friend, who was driving, stopped nearby and got out of the car to help the victims. Later it turned out that among all the eyewitnesses, only the friend of our interlocutor called an ambulance. From other witnesses, the woman learned that the «Largus» wanted to bypass a tractor moving in its lane following another car, but if the first car managed to return to its side, the ambulance did not. So it collided head-on with the jeep.
Witnesses examined both cars: the driver of the jeep survived, as did one of the patients. At the same time, people noticed that in the «Largus» none of the passengers were wearing seatbelts, bodies were lying on top of each other. Only one elderly patient showed signs of life. The editorial office of 59.RU has a video of how this man, in shock and with traces of blood on his face, is sitting in the car among the bodies of other patients. We will not publish this video for ethical reasons.
A correspondent of 59.RU asked the Ministry of Health of Perm Krai whether the patients were indeed not wearing seatbelts and why, if so. We will publish the answer as soon as we receive it.
Earlier we wrote that due to this accident, the Investigative Committee of Perm Krai opened a criminal case, and Bastrykin took it under control.
