YEREVAN. – The Ministry of Transport and Communication of Armenia has specified the amount of  pecuniary compensation to be allocated to those affected by the recent Armenian passenger bus crash in Russia. 

The ministry issued a respective statement and informed that, according to the program, it is planned to allocate 1,500,000 Armenian drams (AMD) (approx. US$3,113) to the families of the dead, AMD 700,000 (approx. $1,453) to each of the fourteen injured who are still being treated in the hospitals in Armenia and in Russia, and AMD 500,000 (approx. $1,038) each to all other passengers of this bus.

The draft decision will be submitted to the Government for approval at the next Cabinet meeting.

Once the government’s decision is approved, the money will be allocated to the affected.

Nine people were killed and over forty others were injured as a passenger bus, which was traveling from Moscow to Yerevan, crashed on November 3, in Tula Oblast (province) in Russia.

Russia has opened a criminal case into this bus crash, and on charges of “breaking the road traffic and vehicle operation rules.” A similar case has been filed in Armenia, too.

According to preliminary data, the bus driver, Garnik Harutyunyan, had fallen asleep at the steering wheel.

Harutyunyan has been taken into custody for two months.