Brake problem in one vehicle may have caused Ushi crash, preliminary assessment suggests: interior minister

Patrol officers’ preliminary assessment suggests that a possible braking problem in one of the vehicles may have caused the fatal crash on the bends near Ushi. However, the causes have yet to be established through the criminal proceedings.

Armenian Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan said this during a briefing with journalists on 4 November, commenting on the crash the previous evening, in which nine people died and three were taken to hospital with injuries of varying severity.

The minister stressed that the assessments were preliminary and declined to identify a definitive cause.

“Patrol officers have made a very preliminary assessment that there was a problem with the brakes of one of the vehicles, because there are no marks on the road indicating braking. But I want to stress again that this is preliminary. Please, none of you should interpret the incident on this basis, because we still need to establish the causes clearly through the proceedings,” Sargsyan said.

She said that every such incident, regardless of the overall statistics, was a tragedy from which lessons must be learnt.

Discussing broader road safety issues, Sargsyan highlighted patrol enforcement, road safety infrastructure, the technical condition of vehicles and driver behaviour.

The minister said that ensuring vehicle inspections were carried out properly remained an area of weakness. She also stressed the need to repair faults identified between inspections, noting that failing to repair a vehicle could lead to dangerous situations.

Nine people were killed and three injured in a collision involving four vehicles near Ohanavan on the Aparan–Ashtarak road on 4 November.

The Investigative Committee said criminal proceedings had been initiated under Article 342, Part 3, of the Criminal Code, concerning a breach of road traffic or vehicle operation safety rules that negligently caused the deaths of two or more people. The preliminary investigation is continuing.