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Probe launched in Poland after presidential car scare

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 05.03.2016 09:33
Government security officers and prosecutors are investigating why a tyre on Polish President Andrzej Duda's armoured limousine burst on a motorway, causing the car to swerve into a ditch.
Andrzej Duda. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk Andrzej Duda. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk

Duda was unhurt in the incident on Friday near the town of Lewin Brzeski on the A4 motorway in southern Poland.

The security of the head of state is a sensitive topic in Poland following the 2010 Smolensk air disaster in western Russia which killed then-president Lech Kaczyński, along with 95 others aboard his plane.

Duda appeared in good spirits during a ski trip on Saturday but told reporters the incident in which his car span off the road should not have happened.

"The incident will be examined by experts. I believe, I hope that it will be examined properly and thoroughly because such things shouldn't happen," he said.

Duda earlier told the private TVN television station that the car in which he had been travelling went into a skid and landed in a ditch. But he added: "There absolutely was no serious accident."

He added that the driver, an officer of the Government Protection Bureau (BOR), "behaved in a model manner" and managed to control the car, which did not hit either roadside barriers or cars in the next lane.

Interior Minister Mariusz Błaszczak told private broadcaster TVN24: “The most important thing is that nobody was hurt, but of course this should not have not happened."

Błaszczak said the head of the Government Protection Bureau has appointed a commission to investigate the incident. (pk)

Source: PAP

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