YEKATERINBURG, December 6./TASS/. The Khanty-Mansi district court has arrested until February 4 the truck driver accused in a criminal case opened over the death of 12 people in a road accident involving a passenger bus in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous district in West Siberia, a court representative told TASS on Tuesday.
"Upon the court ruling, truck driver (Rail) Saitkhanov has been taken into custody until February 4," he said.
Earlier reports on Tuesday said the Russian Investigative Committee has brought charges against other defendants in the case.
"The driver of the bus that was carrying children, Marat Zainullin, is charged with committing a crime under Part 5 of Article 264 of the Russian Criminal Code (violation of road traffic regulations inflicting the death of two or more people through negligence). The truck driver is accused under the same article.
A representative of the entrepreneur effecting carriage, Alexander Sidoruk, has been accused under Part 3 of Article 238 of the Russian Criminal Code (providing services that don’t meet the requirements for safety of live and health of the consumer, inflicting the death of two and more people through negligence). Both have also been arrested until February 4.
Criminal proceedings have also been launched against the director of the Sibiryak children’s sports school, Irina Tarasova, over negligence. She is accused of not signing a charter contract and of not sending a notification to the road police about an organized carriage of children. As a result, young athletes were traveling on a bus that did not meet safety requirements. Pre-trial restrictions will be determined on Wednesday, December 7.
The road accident occurred on the Tumen - Khanty-Mansiisk federal highway on Sunday, December 4. Twelve people, including ten children from the sports school, were killed when a truck, a bus and two cars collided. Seventeen patients remain in hospital.