Tampere taxi crash | The crime was changed to suspected homicide, the police car was also damaged – This is known about the fatal crash

Parola/Helsinki

Parolanummeni the garrison area was surrounded by silence on Monday, which was broken only by the patter of the sneakers of conscripts going for a jog.

Early on Saturday morning, an employee of the Defense Forces took an off-road van from Parola's Armored Brigade without permission, which a little later collided with a taxi stopped at a traffic light, with fatal consequences.

On Monday, the gate of the garrison area was routinely patrolled by two military police. According to their own words, they did not know anything about the events of the night before Saturday or the hijacking of the vehicle.

You leave the garrison area through the main gate, which has booms that automatically raise and lower.

When HS visited the gate on Monday during the day, the booms were working normally when vehicles were driving in and out, and there were no signs of a crash or anything similar.

The journalist did not have access to the garrison area, and filming inside the military area, near the booms, was also prohibited. The patrol leader of the military police who visited the place gave HS permission to film from the border of the military area, about 100 meters away from the booms.

There is not much private housing in Parolannum in the immediate vicinity of the garrison area. The area's immediate surroundings are mainly fields, forests, a winter track and the Panssarimuseo's extensive parking area.

HS assembled together, what is currently known about the Tampere taxi crash and which questions are still open.

What is known about the suspect?

According to HS information, the 20-year-old suspect who drove the Defense Forces car is registered in Hämeenlinna. He has no criminal convictions, at least from the district court of his place of residence or from other district courts in Southern Finland.

The Swedish Armed Forces' press release said on Saturday that the Defense Forces' vehicle was being driven by a person in a temporary position who belongs to the paid personnel.

The police demand the arrest of a man in his twenties on suspicion of, among other things, murder. The detention case is scheduled to be heard in court on Tuesday.

The criminal title of the preliminary investigation has become tougher than previously announced. Over the weekend, the police announced that the driver is suspected of aggravated manslaughter, aggravated endangering traffic safety, aggravated drunken driving, firearms offense and violently resisting an official. However, the driver did not object to the arrest, said the head of the investigation on Sunday.

At the time of the incident, there were no other people in the Defense Forces car besides the driver, and it was not on a drive related to the operations of the Defense Forces. The General Staff of the Defense Forces has so far not agreed to comment on the matter.

It is not known, for example, whether the driver had been on the payroll of the Defense Forces for a long time, what his job duties were or what his possible military rank was. It is not clear if the driver was injured in the collision.

The suspect is in police custody.

How did the fatal crash happen?

The driver had illegally used a Toyota Hilux car from the Armored Brigade of the Defense Forces early on Saturday morning. The accident happened around 5:30 in Tampere on Lempääläntie.

An off-road van collided with a taxi stopped at a traffic light near Viinika, whose middle-aged driver died instantly. Taksi Tampere's taxi driver was awarded for excellent customer service. Tampere Regional Taxi will observe a moment of silence on Thursday afternoon in memory of the deceased driver.

It is suspected that the vehicle collided with the taxi at a considerable speed, but the exact speed figures are not yet known.

“Based on the police investigations, there is reason to suspect that the driver has shown no signs of braking, swerving or trying to avoid the collision,” said the police in a press release on Monday.

Both accident cars had been coming from the direction of Helsinki. There is a distance of about 70 kilometers between the departure and the accident site.

According to the register data of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), the all-terrain van is owned by the headquarters of the Logistics Center of the Defense Forces, and the Armored Brigade is registered as its owner. It was introduced in 2014.

According to the registry data, the car is more than five meters long and its declared curb weight is more than 2,100 kilograms. It is therefore larger than a regular passenger car.

How does the police car relate to the case?

A taxi and an all-terrain van of the Defense Forces were involved in the crash. On Monday, however, it was reported that a police car was also damaged as a result of the two-car crash.

According to the police's press release on Monday, the police car was not actually involved in the crash, but had approached the taxi in the oncoming lane at the time of the collision.

Mightily according to the eyewitnesses interviewed, a Volkswagen Transporter civilian car used by the police was towed away from the accident site, which had impact marks on the bumper and hood.

However, it is not clear how the police car was damaged.

MTV News according to the information, the front tire of the Defense Forces vehicle would have come off and it would have flown towards the police car. The police have not confirmed the information.