Thirteen people were killed and seven more were severely injured when a cargo truck slammed into a passenger minibus outside Chernihiv, a regional capital in northern Ukraine.
The crash happened on the Н-27 highway near Brusyliv village in Chernihiv Oblast at around 8 a.m. on Dec. 7. The force of the impact practically reduced the minibus to scrap metal.
The minibus driver was killed in the crash. The truck driver's condition is unknown.
Police have opened a criminal investigation into a possible violation of road safety rules that led to the fatal collision.
Serhii Vasylyna, head of the regional prosecutor's office of Chernihiv Oblast, wrote on Facebook that bad weather could have been one of the causes of the crash. Vasylyna also questioned the condition of the road and the quality of maintenance services performed on it, as well as the technical condition of the minibus.
In response to the accident, Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky promised that draft laws to improve road safety will be submitted to parliament this month.
