The parents of Grisha Glushich, who died in a traffic accident, called on the authorities to urgently address the situation on the roads

“I’m an officer, and I have a lot of paperwork. This is partly because the army is short-staffed—there aren’t enough people, including those who don’t shoot but fill out forms. 

I’m doing the work of several people at once. When Sasha called me, I didn’t answer. She called a second time—I didn’t answer. She called a third time; I picked up the phone and said, ‘I can’t talk right now.’ I heard the words, “Grisha is dead.” That’s when my work ended,” the man said. 

The boy’s mother, Oleksandra, noted that she called her son, but a man answered the phone.

“He said, ‘Who are you?’—‘I’m calling my son. What happened?’—‘A car accident. Your son died.’ I said, ‘This must be some kind of mistake.’ He asked, ‘Where are you? Far from 40 Chokolivsky Boulevard?’ And I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I said, ‘I’ll come over.’

It’s literally a minute’s drive away. The whole area—the sidewalk, the grounds—was cordoned off with tape, and there were a lot of police officers. I could see a wrecked car on the other side of our underpass. So I went right up to the police tape. “I’m the boy’s mother—let me through.” They didn’t let me all the way to the underpass, but I saw what was happening above ground: lots of car debris and blood. I said, “Where’s my son? Show me.” But they stopped me and tried to comfort me: “We can’t let you go any further—there’s an investigation underway; there’s been an accident.”

All I saw was that there were some other cars near this wrecked car, and they were loading a bag into one of them. I assume they were taking away the last body at that moment. And that was it. And then we stood there for a very long time,” she noted. 

The Need to Change the System

“It became clear that there are two paths: either despair in life, or the fight to ensure this never happens again. If we can do even something small to prevent this from happening again (and it wasn’t a coincidence), then we must do it.

We’re taking on this fight. It’s hard, but it helps. It’s real action, not just mourning for the sake of mourning.

We grieve; it hurts a lot, and it’s very hard, but when you realize how important this is—you straighten your back, put on your sneakers, and go to an interview,” said Oleksiy Hlushych. 

The family has filed a petition on the Office of the President’s website. 

“This isn’t just about traffic laws. It’s also about liability under the Criminal Code. The President is one of the entities with the power to initiate legislation—one of the few who can submit a bill to the Verkhovna Rada.

We know that bills necessary for road safety have been sitting in a committee of the Verkhovna Rada for over a year. 

The committee hasn’t even reviewed them. In other words, they aren’t even saying that these are bad or weak bills. No, they simply haven’t reviewed them for over a year. This approach isn’t working.

“So, Mr. President, please take action, because changes must happen. Because as long as this committee continues to sit on its hands for another two years, children will keep dying,” Oleksiy emphasized. 

The boy’s parents—Oleksiy Hlushych and Oleksandra Terletska—spoke about this in an interview with LB.ua.
 

In Kyiv, 12-year-old Grisha Glushich was laid to rest.

A fatal traffic accident in Kyiv claimed the lives of four people, and it turned out that the driver at fault had a history of 39 traffic violations, most of which were for speeding. 

Police have detained the driver of the Mercedes who caused a fatal traffic accident in Kyiv on Friday. Four people were killed in the accident, and several others were injured.

An investigation is underway in Kyiv into the horrific accident on Chokolivsky Boulevard, where a Mercedes crashed into an underground pedestrian crossing at high speed. Four people were killed in the tragedy, including a 12-year-old boy.