A drunk driver who killed five orphaned teens, their guardian and her husband at a Moscow bus stop last month has been sued for $2.67 million in damages, the plaintiffs' lawyer said Wednesday.
The lawyer, Igor Trunov, said he hoped to collect a total of 73,863,649 rubles and 44 kopeks on behalf of Children's Home No. 7, where the teens lived: 23.86 million rubles to cover expenses incurred in burying the teens and 10 million rubles in moral damages for each of the teens.
He said investigators had filed the claim for moral damages.
The relatives of the guardian, Olga Shirshova, are also seeking another 10 million rubles: 7 million rubles for her mother and 3 million rubles for her brother, Trunov said.
"I have filed claims on behalf of Children's Home No. 7 and relatives of the deceased teacher," he said, according to Interfax.
His chances of collecting the sum appeared slim. Russian courts do not have a history of awarding large settlements, even in wrongful death lawsuits.
It was also unclear whether the driver, Alexander Maximov, 30, would be able to pay any damages. Trunov said early this month that he would seek to seize any property owned by Maximov.
The accident occurred while Shirshova and her husband were waiting with the five teens, aged 14 to 18, at a bus stop on Minskaya Ulitsa in southwest Moscow on the afternoon of Sept. 22. Maximov, who had got his driving license back in March after losing it in 2010 for drunk driving, lost control of his speeding Toyota and crashed into a line of waiting people.
Maximov later admitted to being on a two-day drinking binge and told investigators that he should shoot himself for his actions.
Police are considering charging Maximov with multiple counts of manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol, which carries a punishment of up to nine years in prison followed by a three-year ban on driving.
The accident helped prompt an ongoing crackdown by city police on drunk driving.
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