Hockey player among injured in fatal bus crash in Akmola rgn
A young hockey player who has played in the KHL's farm league has received serious injuries in a bus crash in Kazakhstan that killed 16 people, local authorities told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
A bus carrying people from Astana to the city of Karaganda collided head on with a truck traveling on the wrong side of the road Sunday, and a car carrying four people hit the wreckage.
As well as the 16 dead, more than 20 people were injured.
Artyom Grachev, 19, a former player in KHL team Barys Astana's farm clubs, had recently joined Kazakh league team Temirtau, based near Karaganda, and had been visiting his parents in Astana at the weekend, RIA Novosti reports.
"The condition of patient Grachev is serious but stable," Chingis Shashkin, acting director of regional medical services, said.
"The patient has a severe cranial injury with a fracture of the arch of the base of the skull and a brain hemorrhage."
Shashkin said that "special equipment" was being used to treat Grachev and suggested that his injuries could spell the end of his playing career, noting that treatment of such injuries could "continue indefinitely".