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Snowmobile crash that killed 6 Russians in Italy caused by driver’s carelessness

The deadly accident took place overnight to January 5 on Mount Cermis

ROME, January 7 (Itar-Tass) —— The snowmobile crash on Mount Cermis in north-east Italy that claimed the lives of six Russian tourists was caused by the driver’s carelessness, investigators of the Trento prosecution office said on Monday.

The deadly accident took place overnight to January 5 on Mount Cermis. A group of tourists from Russia’s southern city of Kransodar, members of families -- Denis and Irina Kravchenko, Yulia, Lyudmila and Boris Yudins, Vyacheslav Sleptsov and Rafilya Pshenichnaya, who is also a worker of the tourism sector, went down in the snowmobile from a mountain restaurant. The ride ended in a crash. The snowmobile slammed into a fence and flipped over into a 100-meter ditch. As many as 35 rescuers and a helicopter took part in a rescue operation that lasted for several hours. The two injured were taken to hospital in Trento by helicopter.

Blood test results of one of the two survivors, Azat Yagafarov, 58, who was driving the snowmobile, revealed blood alcohol content slightly exceeding the permissible level of 0.5%, Giuseppe Amato, the prosecutor of Trento, said.

According to Yagafarov, who spoke with investigators at a hospital in Trento, he lost control of the vehicle. Investigators say the snowmobile model was not meant to transport people.

The Trento prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case on charges of unpremeditated killing of one or several persons. As of now, Yagafarov, who lost his wife, Rafilya Pshenichnaya, in the crash, is the only person named in the criminal case. The couple managed a hotel in the mountains, Sporting Cermis, where the Russian tourists were staying.

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