A Supreme Court judge in the republic of Chuvashia fatally struck a 34-year-old woman crossing the street, authorities said Wednesday.
Andrei Yemelyanov was behind the wheel of a Nissan Cherry when he hit the woman on a crosswalk in Cheboksary around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Investigative Committee in a statement on its web site.
The woman — by Komsomolskaya Pravda to have been an accountant at a local design institute — died on the spot. Yemelyanov remained at the scene of the accident.
The committee said it had opened an investigation and was looking for witnesses.
The accident comes a day after a Land Cruiser carrying the director of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, Valery Kyari, fatally struck a 67-year-old pensioner near Sayanogorsk.
The son of the victim, Maria Tanevitskaya, Lifenews.ru that his mother was killed as she headed out to pay a bill.
"She came out of the house and went across the road at the pedestrian crossing. The car was racing at 60 kilometers an hour — it's nonsense!" Yury Tanevitsky said, referring to the allowed speed limit. "I want the driver punished."
The incidents are the latest in a long string of fatal accidents involving high-ranking officials.
Late last week, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region was critically hurt in a wreck that killed the driver of another car under unclear circumstances. In September, four migrant workers were fatally struck near Domodedovo Airport by a convoy of luxury cars belonging to a large bank.
Earlier this year, a court reopened an investigation into a 2010 crash in Moscow involving a top LUKoil executive in which two doctors were killed.
