“In the morning there was a New Year’s training session, teams of children and fathers played on the ice.” Details of the accident in which young hockey players died

— What do we know about the tragedy, are there other victims of the accident?

— Maxim, born in 2010, Artem, born in 2011, and Artem’s father, Valentin, died. To date, the causes of the accident have not been fully established, but there are a lot of comments – people here unfortunately love to slander. Yesterday, the traffic police suggested that either he felt unwell while driving and lost consciousness, or that something was wrong with his heart, or that he fell asleep because he did not There was no braking distance. It is only after the autopsy on January 2 that we will finally understand what happened to Valentin.

We had a New Year’s morning training, teams of children and fathers played on the ice. After hockey, there was a snack, everything was fine. We left the event with the whole team, they were a little ahead. The whole team captured this incident on the track…

— Was it possible to save Artyom and Maxim?

– No, no… After the accident, my husband held Artem’s head for another 20 minutes… It seemed to us that he was still alive. But the doctors who arrived said no.

The guys were wonderful. Tyoma himself is a redhead, the guys and the coach called him a sunny boy. Max is very serious, the captain of the team, the most responsible boy. Sorry, it’s very difficult to speak…

— How did the other children perceive what happened?

– Of course they are stressed. The team has a general discussion and grief has united the adults and young children. We must pay tribute to them, they are all together now, they stick together like a real team. Although the reality is perceived, not everyone understands that the guys will no longer come to practices and matches.

— Will you petition to organize a tournament in memory of fallen hockey players?

“We are thinking about it, we want to organize a tournament in memory of our boys.”

But first, we also have some very big questions for road workers. The accident occurred at a place where the road changes from four to two lanes. All this happens on a bend, there is no lighting or dividing fence. There have already been many accidents here.

Okay, it’s fine during the day, but at night this stretch of road is very dangerous. And there is lighting only on the bridge over the Konoma River. If there were separations on the road, the tragedy would not have happened, there would be no child deaths.

We train in Sheksna, but 90% of the team are Cherepovets boys. We contacted the town hall to ask them to allocate at least three icicles this week to Cherepovets. The city has two ice palaces and three ice rinks. It takes 50 kilometers to go to Sheksna, it’s an hour’s journey, it’s very dangerous and takes a lot of time. But we were offered to train at 6 a.m., since at 8 p.m. the ice was handed over to commercial groups. It turns out that commerce took priority over children’s sports. We asked for ice cream for money and we were willing to pay. It was not possible to reach an agreement with the former governor and sports director of the Vologda region. We will contact new leaders.

— When will the funeral take place?

— Because of the New Year holidays, everything is still vague. Maxim’s parents are from Vytegra – this is another district of the Vologda region, they decided to bury their son there.

We called the chief pathologist of Cherepovets, he said that on January 2 all autopsies would be carried out, including those of the boys. They must establish that the death was caused by the injuries sustained in the accident. They are ready to hand the boys over to us on the 2nd; we first want to organize a farewell that day in the great hall. Valentin and Artem will be buried in Cherepovets and Maxim will be taken to Vytegra; he will most likely be buried on January 3. This is preliminary information.

“Many have already expressed their condolences. Do you feel support from others, is there help?

— The expression “hockey family” is not an empty word.

The support is huge, people are calling from all over Russia, even from clubs that didn’t know us. Our hockey team “Severstal” also helps, no one remained indifferent.