At the Speed of Death

Sunday evening before last in southern Dnipropetrovsk oblast as a result of an automobile accident People’s Deputy of Ukraine Oleksandr Yemets was mortally injured. According to the official report from the oblast Ministry of Internal Affairs Public Relations Center, the accident took place at 8:30 p.m. local time at the 174th kilometer of the Kirovohrad-Zaporozhzhia, near the village of Maryinske. At the steering wheel of Mercedes-Benz 280E belonging to the lawmaker’s brother, Kostiantyn Yemets, was 36- years-old driver and Kyiv resident Ruslan Zaichenko. Six kilometers from the village, in the direction of Kryvy Rih, on a slippery section of the road, the car skidded with its right wheels from asphalt covering to the dirt shoulder. After that the car slid into the ditch and hit a big tree. According to preliminary data, at the moment of the accident the car was moving at the speed of 260 kilometers per hour. During the accident there were neither oncoming nor passing vehicles on the highway.

Passenger People’s Deputy Oleksandr Yemets received the worst injuries. With fractures of arms, legs, and thighs, and also a cranial trauma, ten minutes after the accident he was delivered by passing transport to the Apostolove District Hospital, where he died at 9:24 p.m.

According to hospital information, driver Ruslan Zaichenko was not critically injured; he received several injuries, but now he can talk and is in satisfactory condition. They say that after the accident he wanted for some time to remain near the car, saying that there were documents inside. After first aid was given Mr. Zaichenko in the regional hospital, he was sent to Kryvy Rih.

According to Zaichenko, Oleksandr Yemets was on a business trip to Dnipropetrovsk, then to Zaporizhzhia, from where he went hunting in the proximity of Kakhovka. Returning from his sojourn, the deputy and his aide, who is cited as saying he had not slept for forty-eight hours, took a wrong turn and instead of Nikopol wound up in Ordzhonikidze where local residents explained how to get back on the right road. Zaichenko confirmed they were driving at top speed, 200 to 300 km. per hour.

A state commission on investigation of the circumstances of Mr. Yemets’ death headed by Internal Affairs Minister Yuri Kravchenko that was to arrive in Dnipropetrovsk the morning of January 29 but could not leave Kyiv since flights to Dnipropetrovsk and Kryvy Rih were postponed due to fog.

The State Auto Inspection Press Center of Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry announced that an investigation group went to the site of accident. In the opinion of Mariya Vlasenko, press center director, this car crash belongs to the class of “statistical” accidents. The tragedy had nothing to do with the fact that the victim was a people’s deputy, she said.

The “statistical” character of the accident only aggravates the pain felt at the loss of such an outstanding personality as Oleksandr Yemets. In his 42 years he had been people’s deputy of Ukraine three times, took part in creating two parties, the Party of the Democratic Rebirth of Ukraine in 1990 and People’s Democratic Party in 1995, in 1993-94 he was Minister for National Minorities and Migration, in 1996 Vice Premier, and during constitutional process was a member of constitutional commission on behalf of the president of Ukraine.

The Day’s journalists often asked Oleksandr Ivanovych for comment, and more than once he was a guest of our editorial staff. We may have had different opinions concerning problems of the country, but no one could ignore his logical and coherent arguments. He will remain in our memory as a quiet reasonable man and when necessary emotional, sometimes through a bullhorn.

The Dayexpressed presents its sincere condolences to the victim’s wife and two sons as well as to all those near and dear to him.

P.S.

As Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Police Office of Investigation Chief Anatoly Davydiuk told The Day’s Vadym RYZHKOV, a criminal case has been opened on the road accident in which Oleksandr Yemets was killed. He stated that investigators have put forward two main versions of what caused the accident: breach of traffic regulations by the Mercedes-Benz 280E driver, Ruslan Zaichenko, and the technical condition of the car itself. According to the chief of investigation, it will take at least five days to conduct medical, technical, and other examinations. So far there are no grounds to say that the driver was intoxicated. He himself claims he was extremely tired after driving for two sleepless nights on end.

However, despite all the facts, Moscow’s Izvestiya of January 31 carried the article, “The Accident Was No Accident,” with the subtitle “Another Ukrainian deputy dies under mysterious circumstances.” The author concludes, quoting “many Ukrainian politicians,” that Mr. Yemets was killed according a well-designed scenario which eerily resembles the death of Vyacheslav Chornovil. “Many Ukrainian politicians,” Yanina Sokolovskaya writes, “link the strange death of Yemets to his changed political predilections (Oleksandr’s colleagues are now closely dealing with the notorious Ukrainian cassette scandal triggered by the disappearance of opposition journalist Heorhy Gongadze).” In this connection, the article says, Ukrainian politicians refuse to believe the authorities. It is also noted that Mr. Yemets had recently been deviating from the president’s line and entered the Reforms Center which, in spite of the name, remains a right-wing faction.

Yet, it is still a mystery who the “Ukrainian politicians” supporting this version are. For example, The Daywas told at a January 31 press conference arranged by the Reforms and Order Party that it believes Mr. Yemets death was an accident.

A few days ago, Labor Party head Mykhailo Syrota told UNIAN that, given law enforcement inability to effectively perform its functions, tragic accidents with people’s deputies will be viewed by society at large primarily as the settling of political or business scores.

We cannot but note here: the media exert great influence on popular sentiments in general and the ability of each member of society come to his own conclusion about what is happening in particular. Opting for only one of the versions and giving one-sided coverage of an event, these media outlets can render only dubious benefit to society, about whose good we all clamor, by making it again hostage to not only the authorities and politicians but also to journalists.