All news

Driver who ran into crowd in downtown Moscow says he spent 20 hours behind wheel

The man had mistaken the gas pedal for brakes when he wanted to let a pedestrian cross the road

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. The taxi driver, whose car rammed a group of pedestrians in central Moscow late on Saturday, told the police he had spent 20 hours behind the wheel without having a rest.

On a video of the suspect’s questioning, released by the Moscow police department’s official website, the driver is asked how many hours he had spent behind the wheel. "To be frank, 20 hours," he replied, adding that he only had a pause of two or three hours after finishing his previous 20-hour shift.

The driver said he had mistaken the gas pedal for brakes when he wanted to let a pedestrian cross the road.

When asked why he tried to ran away after the accident, the suspect said he was scared.

"I was afraid. There were so many people there. I thought they were going to kill me," he said.

The driver said there was only about a hundred meters left to his destination. "I wanted to go home and get some sleep," said the taxi driver, who had been working in Moscow for about a month.

A taxi cab drove onto the pavement and ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians on central Moscow’s Ilyinka street. Eight people were injured as a result, and five of them were hospitalized: two female citizens of Mexico, one Ukrainian woman and two Russians.

The driver was detained and taken to a police station. A criminal case was launched.