YEREVAN. – The van heading from Yerevan to Batumi crashed in Georgia due to the Azeri driver’s falling sleep. A GM Smile Tour employee told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am, and noted that the crashed passenger van belonged to their company, and it was transporting 18 passengers to Batumi.

“Our director is in Georgia now,” the company representative said. “He reported that the incident happened because of the Azeri driver’s falling asleep. He admitted his fault; he is now arrested.

“We are trying to organize the transportation of the injured; our director has met with the injured.”

The GM Smile Tour employee added that four vehicles had collided at the scene.

“According to the information we received, a car with a sleeping driver came onto the opposite lane of our car,” the company representative said. “Our driver tried to swerve the car, but [the latter] got hit in the rear and turned upside down.”

The GM Smile Tour employee ruled out that their driver could have been fatigued.

“Even the passengers attest that he tried in every way to awaken—with sound and light signals—the driver that came onto the opposite lane,” the company representative added. “But it didn’t work.”

The GM Smile Tour employee noted that the company does not have a transportation license because it is not needed for transporting tourists.

As reported earlier, on Saturday, at 8:44am, the Emergency Situations Department of Georgia informed the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia that at about 3:10am, several vehicles had collided on the Guguti-Marneuli highway in Georgia.

According to preliminary data, there are 2 dead and 19 injured. Armenian citizens were affected.

Two Armenian nationals—Greta A. (born in 1966), and Marta S. (born in 1991)—died.

The injured and, subsequently, hospitalized Armenian citizens are Lena M., Gayane B., Tatevik G., Laura Kh., Hasmik A., Anush M., Meri M., Anna A., Vardan H., Azat A., Lilia Kh., Zaven Kh., Laura S., Davit K., Karen K., and Garnik G.