A Toyota sedan carrying senior Kursk regional officials smashed into the rear of a KamAZ truck late Saturday, killing three people, Interfax reported.
The dead included car owner Viktor Kurkin, who served as chairman of the Kursk government's public service and personnel committee, and his driver, the report said.
First Deputy Governor Alexander Zubarev and deputy police chief Valery Petrushin were hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries after the accident at 6:30 p.m. on the Kursk-Fatezh highway.
The KamAZ driver did not even notice the crash, possibly because of poor lighting on the highway, Interfax said.
This is not the first time that government officials have suffered major road traffic accidents.
In September 2007, Kostroma Governor Viktor Shershunov was killed in a collision with an oncoming car outside Moscow. In 2005, Altai Governor Mikhail Yevdokimov died after his car struck a tree by a highway near Barnaul.
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