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Car Wreck Highlights Abuse of Power

The imprisonment of a man who was involved in a traffic accident that killed one of Russia`s best-known politicians triggered protests across the country this weekend, especially among motorists who view the jailing as a chilling failure of the courts to protect average citizens from vengeful authorities. Outraged supporters of Oleg Shcherbinsky, a railway worker whose car was hit from behind last summer by a speeding car carrying the Altai region`s governor, rallied Saturday and Sunday in 22 Russian cities, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok in the Far East.

Shcherbinsky was convicted at a closed trial this month and sentenced to four years in a labor colony. The crash occurred on a beautiful morning August 7 in the Altai region of Siberia. Shcherbinsky, 36, his wife and 12-year-old daughter, along with a neighbor and her son, were heading to a lake for a picnic. Gov. Mikhail Yevdokimov, 48, was on his way to the birthday celebration for a Soviet cosmonaut who hailed from a nearby village.

A judge ruled that Shcherbinsky should have seen the Mercedes of the Russian politician and stopped, even though the turn was legal and there was plenty of room on Shcherbinsky`s right for the Mercedes to pass. On Feb. 3, the judge sentenced him to four years in a labor colony for careless driving leading to the death of others and for not yielding to a car with priority. "Why must simple people answer for the mistakes of others?" said Natalia Golosova, 31.