A traffic tragedy in St. Petersburg leaves two dead after a crash and fire
Police officers in St. Petersburg detained the driver of a truck involved in a collision that led to a deadly fire. Two passengers in a UAZ were unable to escape and died at the scene, according to a report from kp.ru citing the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
The incident happened around 10:00 in the morning on March 20 at the intersection of Rubezhnoye Highway and Pontoon Drive. A Scania truck collided with a domestic UAZ vehicle, and the impact caused the latter to erupt in flames.
Official statements indicate that the truck traveled through a prohibited traffic light and struck the UAZ. The press service noted that two people were inside the UAZ and one of them died at the scene.
Preliminary information identifies one victim as a 55-year-old resident of Kolpino, who was known as the head of a local amateur hockey team. Investigators are actively reviewing surveillance footage, talking to witnesses, and examining the sequence of events to determine responsibility and causation.
Earlier city news mentioned a separate incident in which a taxi driver in the Nizhny Novgorod region helped recover 500 thousand rubles sent by a pensioner to scammers, highlighting ongoing concerns about road safety and fraud nationwide.