NIZHNY NOVGOROD, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - A local court in central Russia Tuesday sentenced a taxi driver who caused the deaths of six people in January to six years in a penal colony.
Konstantin Grodcheninov, a 40-year-old resident of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, who used a Gazel mini-bus for transporting local passengers, had modified his car to fit in more people than the safety instructions allowed.
On January 16, he drove his car with 14 passengers over an ice-covered river and deviated from the safe route to avoid a collision with a car coming from the opposite direction. His overloaded mini-bus crashed through thin ice and six passengers drowned.
Grodcheninov was arrested on the same day and kept under house arrest during the preliminary investigation.
