MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow City Court has reaffirmed validity of a sentence to a driver who knocked down and killed seven people on a bus stop in western Moscow last fall.
A petition against the sentence awarded earlier to Alexander Maximov, the driver, by the city’s Nikulino district court was filed by Maksimov’s lawyer, Maksimov himself, the aggrieved parties, and the prosecutor.
“Maksimov shall get a prison term of 8 years and six months that he will serve at a general corrective penitentiary and his right to drive a vehicle will be suspended for three years,” presiding judge Lyubov Nikolenko said at Thursday’s session of the court.
Maksimov’s lawyer Igor Trunov told reporters that he will appeal the ruling. “Neither the punishment nor the specified amount of damages is objective or appropriate,” he said.
September 22, 2012, Alexander Maksimov who was driving his own car bumped into a group of people standing at a bus stop on Minskaya Street in western Moscow and literally crushed them. Five of the dead were teenagers returning from a city festival of performing arts for the children with restricted physical abilities.
The two grownups who died were the children’s teacher and her husband.
Forensic experts found a big enough content of alcohol and traces of marijuana in Alexander Maksimov’s blood.
Police data suggests the man has a past record of violations. In 2010, he was stripped of the driver’s license provisionally for drunk driving.
Conclusions of the technical experts showed that his car was in a proper condition at the moment he committed the offense. The experts also said the speed, at which he was driving, apparently exceeded 79 kilometers per hour but there is no opportunity to calculate it precisely.
In the framework of preliminary investigation, the claimants filed petitions for damages exceeding 80 million rubles /USD 1=RUB 32./ at the current exchange rate/, including 10 million rubles for the life each child who died.