A 29-year-old pregnant woman, Sona Mnatsakanyan, died on Tuesday after being struck by a police vehicle that was part of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s motorcade. Officials confirmed on Wednesday that Pashinyan was in his vehicle as the motorcade was traversing through Yerevan streets.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee reported that at around 6:05 p.m. local time on Tuesday the commander of traffic police unit who was driving the vehicle, struck Mantaskanyan at the intersection of the Leo Panoyan and Proshyan streets in Yerevan.
Mnatsakanyan, who reportedly suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest, was taken to Nairi Medical Center but never regained consciousness, according to hospital officials.
“Immediate resuscitation measures were initiated, which lasted for 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, biological death was registered,” the medical center’s chief physician Anatoly Gnuni told News.am. They also checked but did not find the child’s heartbeat.
The prime minister’s office commented some 24 hours after the incident, saying that Pashinyan phoned the deceased’s father and offered his condolences to him and the family and voiced regret and ensured an investigation into the accident, according to Taron Chakhoyan, who is Pashinyan’s deputy chief of staff, who made a statement on social media.
Chakhoyan confirmed that the prime minister was in one of the vehicles in the motorcade.
“At the time of the collision, the Prime Minister’s car was about 100-150 meters away from the scene. The moment of the collision did not and could not be seen from his car. The Prime Minister’s car passed the scene a few seconds after the incident. The Prime Minister was not aware and could not be informed what exactly happened,” Chakhoyan said on Wednesday.
“Noticing the woman when passing by the scene of the accident, the prime minister instructed to call an ambulance and find out what happened. The ambulance arrived minutes later. The prime minister was informed about the incident by the traffic police accompanying car as soon as he reached the National Assembly, after which he gave relevant instructions to the Minister of Health and law enforcement,” Chakhoyan wrote on his Facebook page.
Chakhoyan explained that the driver of the vehicle did not stop to provide first aid to Mnatsakanyan because if “it had stopped the entire row of vehicles would have to stop thus halting traffic and causing other road congestion on adjacent street, which would have prevented from the ambulance to approach the scene.”
“Also taking into account such circumstances, according to internationally accepted regulations, the vehicles accompanying the motorcade of heads of state (in this case, the traffic police) do not have the right to stop in an unplanned place, even in case of accidents,” Chakhoyan wrote.
Chakhoyan also said that the Prime Minister had a telephone conversation with Sona Mnatsakanyan’s father, expressed his condolences to him and his family members, expressed his sorrow and regret over the incident, and assured that an objective investigation will be carried out.
Born and raised in the Berkanush village of Artashat in Armenia’s Ararat Province, Mnatsakanyan got married a year ago and moved to Yerevan. She worked at the Support Our Heroes organization.
“It is with great sorrow that we mourn the loss of our beloved Sona and her unborn child. Sona Mnatsakanyan was a founding member of Support Our Heroes and the leader of the Artsakh Tever IT Center project group within SOH. Sona will always remain in our hearts as an exemplary patriot and a dear friend with great human values. Our condolences to Sona’s family, loved ones, friends…,” said the organization in a social media post announcing Mnatsakanyan’s passing.
Passers-by and opposition demonstrators visited the site of the accident and placed flowers and stuffed animals to mark the untimely death.
