Yesterday, September 10th, a Russian police Mercedes—speeding over 100 miles per hour in a lane used by oncoming traffic—collided with a Russian Lada, injuring (or possibly killing) its driver and a passenger. The accident was documented by witnesses with cellphone cameras and covered by the Russian news site Gazeta.Ru.
According to witnesses, the accident occurred after traffic police failed to provide adequate warning about a lane closure on the Kaluzhskoe highway for the motorcade of, presumably, the Head of the Russia’s Supreme Court. Early news reports said that the collision involved a common police vehicle. However, eyewitness photographs show a vehicle (a brand new Mercedes E-Klasse) far beyond the means of a “common policeman.”
Aleksey Kollontai, Director of the Moscow Center for Accident Prevention, noted that the driver of the Mercedes demonstrated a high level of skill—not typical for a police officer in the Moscow suburbs. According to Mr. Kollontai, the car did not weave after the collision, nor did it suffer terrible damage (even after colliding “head on” with the two vehicles combined closure speed of approximately 170 miles an hour). The Lada—known for its dismal safety record and lacking airbags or a collision avoidance system—obviously fared much worse in the crash.
However, Mr. Kolontai states that the Mercedes driver “did everything possible to save the lives of the Lada passengers” by striking their vehicle at an angle (while Americans may not have heard about this practice, in Russia, escort cars can be called upon to clear out any vehicle that would appear unexpectedly on a road that has been shut down for a high level motorcade).
Mr. Kolontai's personal opinion was that while the escort driver did his job of protecting the motorcade, the Moscow Oblast police were ultimately to blame for the tragedy, because they failed to properly shut down the highway or give the Lada driver fair warning.
Deepening this roadside mystery, several witnesses provided conflicting accounts about the aftermath of the accident. For example, one driver claimed that the victims lying on the roadway were pulled from the Mercedes, while another insisted that they were from the Lada. One witness claimed that the militsia and “people in suits” were ignoring a body on the road, focusing instead on the quick removal of vehicles from the site of the accident. However, the police could not move fast enough, as the resulting traffic jam allowed witnesses to take numerous photographs at the scene. According to Gazeta.ru, all of the story contributors and photographers prefer to remain anonymous.
The Mercedes was not alone. All the other cars in the official motorcade—including a top of the line BMW, an Audi and a Ford Focus—were equipped with blue lights and moving in formation at high speeds into the opposite lanes of the highway. After the accident, the motorcade parked on the side of the road for about twenty minutes, then the drivers turned on their blue lights and took off, headed towards Moscow.
It is our hope that whoever was in those cars survived and, if so, that they recover from their injuries. Furthermore, we hope that the officials in the motorcade will come forward and help the victims and their families. And as always, whenever we hear about another preventable death on Russia's roads, we must ask the question: is all of this insane driving by Russian officials justified, or is it just a “power trip” display for others who occupy a lower social strata?
Comments
Yuri,
There seams to be a few recent articles on gov corruption and police issues lately on RB.
In my great town of Hackettstown NJ, we recently had a cop arrested because he gave / loaned his police radio to some local drug dealer... later the police radio was found at a murder scene... And Hackettstown NJ was voted the 20th best place to live in NJ. Never mind that Hackettstown High School has a nickname of Heroin High School.
And recently (2 weeks ago) my great state of NJ had a bunch of town mayors and a bunch of NJ state law makes arrested, about 11 in all, for corruption, taking massive bribes... I had to clean my glasses, I was confused, was this a CNN special on Russian corruption? No, it was NJ corruption. No matter how many times I look at the articles, it still says NJ.
My point is that we will find the same corruption or bad driving in Russia or America.
But this black mark on any society comes with poor economies, massive fed debt, inflation, high energy prices, and unaffordable housing and so on.
Don't get too excited about Mercedes police cars, my last trip to Germany was nothing but Mercedes TAXIS.
And look at the bright side, as the US luxury car market dies off, Russia can keep the assembly lines in Germany stamping out those Mercedes and BMWs. Soon as the UK lacks oil and gas as the North Sea reserves die down, they too might consider turning the Rolls-Royce production plant into making police cars for Russia and Venezuela.
And top all this off, The Wall Street Journal is to be purchased by Rupert Murdoch, but Gazprom made a bid for it and it's as if this needs to be kept a secret. So it seems to me government corruption in the US from NJ to keeping Gazprom from buying the Wall Street journal is larger than a crashed police car in Russia.
Respectfully...
Posted by: Luther G .Quick | September 11, 2007 7:30 PM
I guess I will have to say that all the new found prosperity and nationalism of Russia has not yet reached the influence of the most important value- the priceless value of the gift of life.
It is sad and unfortunate that power and affluence, and material luxiries seem to be the greatest influence in people's lives. Evidenced by the motorcade of luxury vehicles ignoring the safety of the roads, and brushing aside the carnage left behind as they sped toward their city of prosperity and glamour.
Call me jaded, but glitz and glamour, and money and prestige isn't everything.
Posted by: Tanya | September 11, 2007 8:19 PM
You know that it is a show of power just like the Blue Lights.
Problem is that the normal person gets caught in the middle and sometimes gets hurt.
I watched a Babushka trying to cross the road at a cross walk.With a light mind you. An Audi laid on the horn and went by her so close that he hit the bag she was carrying and her stuff scattered all over the road. The car went down the road as if nothing happened. We helped her pick up her items and gave her a new bag,
Guess what! As we backed up cars to help her, one car was honking because we caused a delay in traffic. It was another Audi this time with a blue light drove up on the sidewalk and honked at people to get out of the way.
Sad is it not?
Kyle
Posted by: kyle keeton | September 12, 2007 2:29 AM
This is what's still so messed up about Russia. Just because of some damned bureaucrat they do not hesitate to put ordinary people in harm's way. The f..g driving the police Mercedes needs to go to jail and rot there.
Posted by: Al Goroh | September 12, 2007 10:19 PM
Hi!!A report last week in Japan's Asahi newspaper speculates that this car will be powered by one of Subaru’s flat-four engines. Other speculation suggests that it will be rear-wheel drive, that it could go on sale as early as 2011, and that it will sell for less than $20,000.
Stay tuned for updates surrounding this exciting new collaboration.
Scott Deyager, Corporate Communications
Dancing with Cars
isuzu orange county And that’s the point of the many avenues of research we’re following. As much as we might like to see an effort to build a hydrogen-fuel infrastructure, we believe that sustainable mobility will require much more than reliance on a single source of that mobility. We posted a comprehensive look at our take on sustainable mobility a couple of months back. You can see that post by clicking here.
In any case, we think that Mr. Burns did well to refocus thinking on hydrogen fuel cells as an element of the solution to the overall mobility puzzle. Shining a light on the problem can only help illuminate the path toward a solution.
Toyota, GM and Hydrogen Power!!! :)
Good bay!!!
Posted by: dimuscar | May 11, 2008 12:27 AM