Ukraine mourns tram accident victims (07/07/96)

Ukraine mourns tram accident victims

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - On what should have been a day of national celebration to mark the adoption of Ukraine's Constitution, Wednesday, July 3, turned into a day of national mourning after 32 people died in a tragic street car accident in the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Dnipro-dzerzhynske.

Twenty-nine people were killed immediately as an overcrowded tram, carrying 104 passengers, derailed, crashed into a concrete wall and tipped over during rush-hour traffic on Tuesday afternoon, July 2. Three more people died in area hospitals; seven were treated and released, while 65 passengers remain hospitalized, reported Ukraine's Deputy Health Minister Viktor Marievsky on Wednesday morning.

First Deputy Prime Minister Vasyl Durdynets, along with members of a special government commission, left for Dniprodzerzhynske immediately after receiving news of the tragedy.

Late Tuesday night President Leonid Kuchma declared July 3 a day of national mourning and postponed the gala reception for lawmakers, government officials and guests planned for that evening to herald the adoption of Ukraine's Consti-tution. (At press time, no new date had been set for the ceremony).

The Ukrainian leader sent a message of condolence addressed to the acting head of the Dnipropetrovske regional administration, Mykola Derkach, reported Interfax-Ukraine.

"I have issued orders to grant aid to the victims and set up an investigation committee," said President Kuchma in the message. Although there has been no confirmation about the cause of the accident, officials in the city speculate that the brakes on the tram could have failed as it traveled downhill on the tracks.

Ukraine's blue-and-yellow flag - newly enshrined in the Constitution trimmed with a black mourning bend. All festivities scheduled for the day were canceled and only somber music was aired on state television and radio stations.

After the adoption of the Ukrainian Constitution in Parliament on June 28, President Kuchma had jubilantly announced that the historic event would be marked on July 3 with an official gala reception at Kyiv's Sports Palace, one of the few facilities large enough to hold the thousand or so people who had planned to attend the event.

It was perhaps no coincidence that President Kuchma had chosen July 3 as the date - the same day Russian citizens will vote for their president. Observers say the date was picked to underscore the fact that while Russians were still deciding what course to take, communism or democracy, Ukraine, by adopting a democratic Constitution, had made its choice.

During its plenary session on the morning of July 3, the Supreme Council observed a minute of silence in honor of the dead in Dniprodzerzhynske, as did journalists at press conferences and government officials at their meetings.

| Home Page |