Penza, 2 March 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza region governor Ivan Belozertsev is expressing his condolences to relatives of the people who died in a big traffic accident on the M5 “Ural” federal highway in the Bessonovka area.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

During the coordination meeting on security measures held on in the regional government on Wednesday, March 2, the head of the region stressed the importance of introducing additional security measures on federal highway sections within the region.

“Most of the cars now are modern, strong, the roads are in good repair state, but there are not enough traffic monitoring cameras. If they had stood every 500 meters, that would have disciplined the drivers. We could have prevented highway tragedies, if the drivers had not violated the traffic laws,” Ivan Belozertsev said.

He ordered to prepare an address with proposals of additional security measures to the heads of the body that manages the M5 “Ural” federal highway.

“This problem must be solved under public-private partnership. Moreover, we must set up decoy car carcasses along the federal highway to as a warning to all drivers,” the press service of the Penza region government quotes Ivan Belozertsev.

As PenzaNews reported earlier, the emergency services received the report about the tragic accident in the Bessonovka area of the Penza region at 13.10 of Wednesday, March 2, after a Mercedes passenger minibus collided with a MAN freight truck on the M5 “Ural” federal highway, leaving nine dead – all of them passengers of the minibus – and three injured, including a child.

According to original reports, the minibus was en route from Ulyanovsk to Penza: however, later the sources clarified that the vehicle departed from Penza towards Ulyanovsk.

The EMERCOM opened an incident hotline: +7 (8412) 68-11-12.

After a thorough investigation, the emergency rescue crew began extracting the bodies out of the vehicle, cutting through mangled metal.

Among the officials that coordinated the works at the accident scene were Sergei Kozlov, head of the Penza region EMERCOM headquarters, and Yuri Ruzlyaev, chief of the regional Ministry of the Interior department.

The Investigative Committee staff are also engaged in the process of establishing the full picture of the incident.

The relatives of the deceased began gathering at the crash site approximately three hours after the incident. Some of them had to resort to psychological aid.

The Penza region Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under Part 3, Art. 238 of the Criminal Code, “Production, Storage, Carriage or Sale of Goods and Products, Fulfillment of Works or Rendering of Services Which Do Not Meet Safety Standards.”

In addition, the Penza region Ministry of the Interior department also opened a criminal case, this time under Part 5, Art. 264 of the Criminal Code, “Violation of Traffic Rules and Rules for Operation of Transport Vehicles.”