New probe in Poland into presidential car scare
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
18.03.2016 12:23
Poland’s interior ministry has launched a new probe into a scare involving President Andrzej Duda's limousine after a newspaper claimed the Government Protection Bureau (BOR) “knowingly exposed the president to danger.”
Jarosław Zieliński. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
The Rzeczpospolita daily on Friday reported that on the day that the president’s car swerved into a ditch after a tyre burst “one mistake after another had been made.”
The paper said a tyre that had been earlier withdrawn from use had been mounted on Duda’s car, adding that there had been no new tyres available.
Deputy Interior Minister Jarosław Zieliński told reporters: “After the press reports, we decided this must be checked.”
He added that an interior ministry team of investigators would probe "security procedures, in other words conduct a deeper audit."
Last week, the deputy chief of Poland's Government Protection Bureau argued that the blow-out might have been averted had the tyres on the president’s car been changed.
Colonel Jacek Lipski, presenting a preliminary report at a press conference, blamed his predecessors for introducing guidelines that contradicted the instructions of the tyre producer.
Duda's armoured limousine swerved into a ditch after a tyre burst on 4 March on the A4 motorway in southern Poland. No one was hurt. (pk)
Source: PAP