A woman from Khmelnytskyi won a court case against a transport company, receiving 250,000 UAH in compensation for her father's death.
The Khmelnytskyi Court of Appeal has ordered the transport operator Taras Stetsyk from Ternopil to pay Natalia Kudynia 250,000 UAH in compensation. Her father died in a car accident in Poland in 2021.
The accident occurred on the night of March 5-6 while exiting to the POP "Kashytsia" in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, about 30 km from the Ukrainian border. A bus traveling from Poznań to Kherson, carrying 57 Ukrainians, was involved in the accident. At the scene, five Ukrainians died, and 35 people sustained injuries of varying severity. Later, in Polish hospitals, two more victims died, and a third passed away after returning to Ukraine.
The case materials indicate that the bus driver executed a dangerous maneuver while turning at high speed, lost control, and veered off into a ditch. In July 2022, the District Court in Przemyśl found the driver guilty of the fatal accident and sentenced him to 2 years and 6 months in prison.
The daughter of the deceased passenger from Khmelnytskyi filed a lawsuit against the transport operator Taras Stetsyk, seeking 700,000 UAH in moral damages. In August, the Shepetivka City District Court ruled
In July 2024, the Shepetivka City District Court partially satisfied the claim and ordered the entrepreneur to pay her only 250,000 UAH. In November, the Khmelnytskyi Court of Appeal upheld this decision, although Taras Stetsyk argued that the Polish court's verdict is not recognized in Ukraine, and therefore there are no legal grounds to make a compensation ruling based on it.
Additionally, this is not the only accident that has occurred on this section of road in Poland. On March 22, another Ukrainian bus, operating on the Wrocław – Chernivtsi route, was involved in an accident at the same location. It veered off the road, damaged a guardrail, and fell into a roadside ditch. As a result of the accident, one of the drivers died at the scene, and five passengers sustained injuries of varying severity. Following this, road workers eliminated the hazardous ditch.