A Russian theater actor died in a car crash in Moscow early on Wednesday, the second well-known figure to fall victim to Russia's deadly roads in the past week.
Yury Stepanov, a popular theater and movie actor, was on his way home after a performance of Chekhov's Three Sisters at the renowned Pyotr Fomenko Studio when the Lada he was traveling in was hit from behind while stopped at a red light.
"According to preliminary information, the driver of the Mazda vehicle significantly exceeded the speed limit and too late noticed the VAZ-2104 stopped at an intersection, crashing into the back of the Lada and pushing it into a VAZ-2112," a traffic police source said on Wednesday, adding that tests showed the Mazda driver was sober.
An emergencies ministry official said Stepanov died at the scene of multiple injuries, including severe fractures of his legs. The actor is survived by his wife, Irina, and a school-age son, Konstatin.
The accident follows the death of a well-known gynecologist and her daughter-in-law in an accident last Thursday involving the chauffeur-driven Mercedes of a vice president of Russia's largest independent oil company, LUKoil.
The police said Olga Alexandrina, a gynecologist like her mother-in-law, Vera Sidelnikova, was to blame for the crash, but the family has disputed the official version of events. The LUKoil executive, Anatoly Barkov, was hospitalized while his driver declined hospital treatment.
The official report, backed up by LUKoil, said the small Citroen driven by Alexandrina swerved into the opposing lane and hit the Mercedes head-on. The family says the oil executive's car pulled out into oncoming traffic to bypass one of Moscow's notorious traffic jams, and they will take their case to court.
The case has struck a chord with the Russian public, who spend hours sitting in traffic jams while the rich and powerful speed past.
The pervading sense of impunity for the Russian elite was demonstrated last week when the authorities in Irkutsk were forced to deny reports that the daughter of the head of the Siberian region's election commission would escape charges over the death and maiming of two pedestrians in December.
Video footage shows the Toyota of Anna Shavenkova mounting the sidewalk at speed and plowing into Yulia and Yelena Pyatkova. One of the sisters died while the other has been disabled.
Shavenkova is seen getting out of the vehicle and walking around it while making a call on her mobile telephone with apparent disregard to the injured women lying on the sidewalk.
Police said on February 24 that Shavenkova is a suspect in the ongoing investigation and charges will be filed soon.
Official statistics showed nearly 30,000 people died on Russia's roads in 2008, and President Dmitry Medvedev has blamed the carnage on the poor state of the country's roads, as well as a "lack of discipline, and the criminal negligence of drivers."
MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti)
