Taxi driver who hit Moscow pedestrians fell asleep while driving – Moscow Police

AP: The suspect in a taxi crash near Red Square that injured two Mexican World Cup fans and other pedestrians told interrogators that he fell asleep at the wheel, Moscow police said Sunday.

City police released a video Sunday of an interrogation session with a man identified as the Kyrgyz taxi driver, in which he says he briefly dozed off and accidentally hit the gas. It was unclear whether the man spoke under duress.

The man says he hadn’t slept in 20 hours and wasn’t drunk, and ran away after the accident because he was afraid that angry bystanders would kill him. He was later detained.

Moscow police would not comment on whether the crash would affect security measures for the World Cup, which is being held in 11 Russian cities over the next month. Among the security concerns has been the possible use of vehicles as weapons.

A spokeswoman for FIFA told The Associated Press that the World Cup organisers regretted what happened, but referred security questions to Moscow authorities because the crash took place outside stadiums or fan venues. The spokeswoman, who was not authorised to be publicly named, said World Cup organisers were in regular contact with local authorities about security.