Three vehicles were involved in a collision on the Crimean bridge as they headed toward Kerch, according to a source within Crimea’s emergency services cited by TASS.
Three people died and another person sustained injuries whose condition was initially described as serious. Traffic was halted in both directions at the site, the source reported. The deceased were in the same vehicle that entered the oncoming lane, and the victims included a driver and two passengers born in 1996, a 24-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man. A 1970-born man was injured and remained under medical assessment. The casualty was initially trapped in the wrecked car but rescuers were able to extract him. Ambulance teams arriving at the scene classified the patient’s condition as serious and transported him to a hospital for urgent care.
Officials at the republican headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicated that one of the cars veered into the opposite lane. A VAZ-2112 moving from Crimea toward Kuban collided head-on with a Hyundai Starex. In the aftermath, a VAZ-2106 crashed into them. The driver and two passengers of the VAZ-2112 perished, while the Hyundai driver was admitted to a hospital. The drivers and passengers of the third vehicle, a Lada Kalina model known as the “six,” were not injured.
Kerch Mayor Svyatoslav Brusakov projected that it would take about one to one and a half hours to clear the bridge and restore traffic flow. He noted a small traffic jam forming but emphasized that responders would focus on assisting victims and assessing the scene. He added that the situation would stabilize with time, particularly given it was a Monday and authorities were already mobilizing resources.
By noon, Crimea’s Crimean Ministry of Internal Affairs’ press service, as reported by RIA Novosti, stated that traffic on the Crimean bridge had begun to improve following the incident. The ministry described the immediate consequences as resolved. The Uprdor Taman press service, which oversees the bridge’s roadway portion, reported minor congestion at the entry points on both sides. The ministry noted that once traffic resumed, a brief accumulation of vehicles from Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Crimea appeared on approach roads, with wait times reaching up to two hours.
The bridge is almost finished
Rosavtodor’s press service informed TASS on February 14 that traffic for cars and buses on the Crimean bridge was expected to open on the left by the end of the month, with restoration work nearing completion. Experts were slated to continue repairs on damaged engineering systems, install barrier fencing, and apply thermoplastic road signs over the next two weeks.
Earlier statements from the Ministry of Transport of Russia indicated that after repairs, vehicle traffic on the Crimean bridge would resume. It was noted that restrictions on movement would apply from midnight to noon Moscow time during the restoration period.
In a separate incident on October 8, a truck explosion on the Crimean bridge attributed to Ukrainian special services triggered a fire that reached the fuel tanks of a railway train, causing two bridge openings in the automobile section to collapse. Five people lost their lives in that event, underscoring ongoing safety concerns along the crossing.