Russian bus driver jailed after falling asleep at the wheel and driving into river - killing seven passengers
A bus driver who killed seven passengers when he fell asleep at the wheel and drove off a bridge into a river has been jailed for six years.
Judges at Oktyabrsky District Court in St. Petersburg, Russia, heard that driver Rakhmatshukh Kurbonov had been "exhausted" when his bus plunged into the icy water.
During the horror crash in May Kurbonov's bus crashed into two cars and through safety barriers into the 10-foot-deep Moika River.
Police told the court: "He was in a tired state, worsening his reaction and attention, as well as endangering traffic safety.”
The driver pleaded guilty to causing death through negligence and as well as being jailed was banned from driving for two and a half years, local media reports said on 25th October.
Shocking streetcam footage of the crash shows the bus bumping over one road barrier and veering suddenly to the right hitting two cars as it smashes into the bridge guard rails. As it falls nose-first into the river the bus disappears under the water right up to its roofline.
Later footage from October 25 shows the handcuffed driver being led into the dock in handcuffs for his sentencing hearing. Earlier, the court had found the bus's operator LLC Taxi guilty of gross safety violations.
Story: NewsX