A petition by the father of a boy who died in a car accident has garnered 25,000 signatures
A petition by soldier Oleksiy Glushych, who lost his 12-year-old son in a fatal traffic accident in Kyiv, has reached the required 25,000 signatures. It must now be reviewed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The boy’s father is calling for stricter penalties for habitual speeding and for the punishment of dangerous drivers to be made inevitable.
The petition from the father of 12-year-old Hryhorii Hlushych, who died in a horrific traffic accident in Kyiv, has officially gathered the required 25,000 signatures. This means the document will be forwarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for consideration.
The author of the petition is Oleksiy Hlushych, a serviceman in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is currently defending the country on the front lines, but after his son’s death, he decided to push for changes that, in his opinion, could save other lives.
The tragedy occurred on June 5 in the Karavaevy Dachi neighborhood of Kyiv. According to the investigation, a Mercedes traveling at high speed veered off the road and crashed into an underground pedestrian underpass. As a result of the accident, 12-year-old Hryhoriy was killed. Afterward, his parents—Oleksiy Hlushych and Oleksandra Terletska—began speaking out publicly about the need for changes in road safety.
In his petition, the soldier pointed out that the driver, whom investigators consider responsible for the fatal accident, had repeatedly violated traffic laws even before the crash. According to the information cited in the document, the driver had 39 violations on record, most of which involved speeding. In the opinion of the deceased boy’s father, such a high number of violations should have prompted a more stringent response from the government even before the tragedy. “The hardest thing to accept is that dozens of previous violations did not serve as grounds for effectively preventing this new tragedy. This fatal accident was the result of a systemic problem that the state can no longer ignore. Once again, we have seen that the current system is incapable of adequately protecting people from drivers who systematically ignore traffic laws,” emphasized Oleksiy Hlushych.
In the petition, he proposes several specific changes. In particular, he calls for revoking the driver’s licenses of those who regularly violate traffic rules. He also urges that penalties for accidents resulting in fatalities be made more severe and inevitable. Separately, the soldier stresses that speeding should no longer be viewed as a minor offense.
The boy’s father also cited statistics that, in his opinion, demonstrate the scale of the problem. According to the Patrol Police, in 2025 alone, 3,249 people died in traffic accidents in Ukraine, and another 31,898 were injured. On average, Ukrainian roads claim the lives of nine people every day.
The data on child mortality is particularly distressing. According to information cited in the petition, 678 children died in traffic accidents between 2022 and 2025, following the start of the full-scale invasion. At the same time, the number of such tragedies has risen every year: 125 children died in 2022, 171 in 2023, 180 in 2024, and 202 in 2025. “Exceeding the safe and established speed limit is one of the main causes of traffic accidents with serious consequences in Ukraine and a key factor determining the likelihood of death or serious injury in the event of an accident,” emphasized Oleksiy Hlushych.
Now that the petition has gathered the required 25,000 signatures, it must be officially reviewed by the President of Ukraine. According to procedure, the head of state must respond to the petition and state his position on the proposed changes.
The father of the deceased boy hopes that his son’s death will not remain just another tragic entry in the statistics. He is convinced that increasing penalties for habitual speeding and reckless driving will help save the lives of other children and adults, as well as make Ukrainian roads safer for everyone.
On June 5, a major traffic accident occurred in Kyiv, killing four people and injuring three others. The accident took place around 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Vadym Hetman and Ushynsky Streets near Karavaevy Dachi.
