As someone who pays close attention to such cases, I’ve noticed a disproportionately high number of incidents over the past year of law enforcement officials behind the wheel mowing down pedestrians. This latest deadly accident in the Vladimir region, however, has an interesting twist: The traffic cop suspected of running down a female cyclist, hiding her body in a ditch and fleeing the scene of the crime — well, he apparently was investigating the crime for two days before his involvement was revealed.
On the evening of Aug. 14, Yevgeny Spitsyn, a road safety officer in the Vladimir region city of Gus-Khrustalny, was driving his own vehicle when he ran over a 49-year-old woman riding her bicycle on the same side of the road, regional investigators said in a statement.
The investigators’ statement gives just the bare details: The woman’s body was discovered the next morning in a ditch next to the road covered with tree branches; an autopsy showed that she died from her injuries at the scene of the accident; the driver fled the scene; Spitsyn was driving too fast; vehicular manslaughter case opened; investigation is ongoing. As it turns out, Spitsyn “actively took part in operations” to locate the driver, “questioning witnesses and trying, together with his colleagues, to establish the identity of the guilty party,” regional police told Gazeta.ru. Two days after the accident, with investigators closing in on him, Spitsyn confessed his role in the woman’s death, the web site cited investigators as saying. Spitsyn has quit the force though he has still not been taken into custody, Gazeta.ru reported. The victim, investigators said, was cycling to work when she was struck and killed, effectively leaving her family without a breadwinner. To quote Pete Seeger: When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
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