In the early hours of 20 July, a fatal road traffic collision occurred in the town of Brody, in which three underage girls were killed and two more teenagers were injured. The investigation is being overseen by the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to preliminary information, at around two o’clock in the morning the driver of a Mercedes was driving along Ivana Bohuna Street towards the town centre. On a bend in the road, he lost control, veered onto the roadside, collided with a tree and then with a concrete electricity pylon. The impact caused the car to overturn.
There were six people in the vehicle – the driver and five underage passengers. Four girls who were sitting on the back seat were thrown out of the car. Three passengers died at the scene: two 16-year-old girls and one 15-year-old girl. Another 16-year-old girl in a critical condition was taken to the intensive care unit.
A 17-year-old front-seat passenger was also injured and sought medical help on his own after the crash. According to initial findings, the group were returning from a celebration, as two of the passengers had marked their birthdays the previous day.
After the collision, the driver left the scene, but law enforcement officers quickly established his whereabouts and detained him under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. He was identified as a 24-year-old resident of Brody. A medical examination showed that his blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit.
“The death of three minors in a single road accident is an unprecedented tragedy for Lviv region in the past decade. We will do everything to ensure that the investigation is thorough, objective and as swift as possible, and that every aspect of this tragedy receives an appropriate legal assessment,” stressed Yurii Matlakh, head of the Department for the Protection of Children’s Interests and Combating Domestic Violence of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Under the procedural guidance of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, information has been entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations regarding a violation of road safety rules committed under the influence of alcohol, which led to the death of several people (Part 4 of Article 286-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). A decision is currently being made on serving the detainee with a notice of suspicion; priority investigative actions are ongoing, conducted by investigators of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Lviv region.
It is recalled that, in accordance with Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and may not be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in the manner prescribed by law and established by a guilty verdict of a court.