George Malik regarding WDIV interview with Slava Fetisov

[Mort Divine]

George Malik ‏@georgemalik 8:13 PM - 1 Feb 2014
WDIV's promising a Devin Scillian interview with Slava Fetisov, regarding the Konstantinov accident in 1997, on Monday at 11.

George Malik ‏@georgemalik 8:27 PM - 1 Feb 2014
Yeah, let's just say that according to WDIV, Slava Fetisov isn't sure that the Konstantinov accident was an accident.

Interesting, though I don't know why something so potentially weighty like the accident not actually being an accident would be kept quiet for almost 20 years...

Not sure if it has any real weight to it, but he was in that limo so who knows.

 

[Flowah]

wat.

What does he mean not an accident? Someone did that purposefully?

Wasn't the driver on a suspended license for drunk driving? Did the guy purposefully crash into a tree? That doesn't make very much sense. And Fetisov got away pretty easily, it seems like if the intent there was to kill or seriously injure, there are more surefire ways to do that...

 

[Mort Divine]

Yeah, Richard Gnida was driving on a suspended license and Gnida claimed he fell asleep at the wheel.

Apparently he was arrested a couple years after the accident for drunk driving as well.

I did find this case of serious negligence by the limo company though...

http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2008/05/konstantinovmnatsakanov_trial_1.html

Lawyers for Findlay Ford Lincoln Mercury argued that the limo company knew or should have known that Gnida was driving without a license and had a history of drunken driving and speeding. The company also had no policy to ensure that seat belts were accessible to customers, former owner John Gambino acknowledged in testimony today.
...
Gambino said seat belts weren't his company's responsibility because state law doesn't require backseat drivers to buckle up.

"I wasn't even thinking about seat belts," Gambino said of the day the Red Wings players piled into the limo. "I just wanted to make sure the car was clean, and that was it."

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Lots of rumors on this but most of them would go under the libel part so not much to comment on. It is sad that this happened, such a dark time after those long years waiting only six days to celebrate the win and Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov lives and families forever changed. Fetisov could be setting himself up for a blow back in terms of some of the rumors out there if he does open up on this all these years later.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Well here it is.

Slava Fetisov thinks the limo driver from the infamous 1997 Detroit Red Wings accident crashed on purpose, and he doesn’t think the team reacted properly in the aftermath.

“I think this guy did it on purpose, the limo driver,” Fetisov told Scillian, according to the TV subtitles, before further explaining the physics of the crash.

But Fetisov did not address why he thinks Gnida would have intentionally crashed.

Fetisov also said he was ticked off at the Wings’ response to the crash, which Scillian said affected Konstantinov’s long-term health coverage.

“They said not team event,” Fetisov said.

http://www.freep.com/article/201402...ed-wings-limousine-crash-fetisov-konstantinov

Not very illuminating really. Always find it interesting that the players involved and family members have so little to say about the drunk driver in Gnida. Unusual behavior to say the least, the outrage is nowhere near the level you will see in most of these cases. They also have dogged questions for going on over a decade and a half as to whether they actually knew him, interesting no? He says did on purpose but why? Why not address the guy you are accusing, why have they never really shed light on some of the rumors that swirl around this, just find it curious we are moving close 20 years and there is still a strange smoke around this tragic incident.

I am assuming he is speaking to Vladdy's health care and insurance coverage. The players met at a team golfing event that day which we all know, but it must have been player organized or something along those lines. Had he been injured at a team sponsored event my guess is his coverage would be a little different. Probably what he is talking about lost in translation, I don't think the Wings have abandoned Vladdy at all, they still show him at games, they have sponsored his art and kept him in that family, but you're looking at how insurance works. My father used to make the joke if he had a heart attack at home to drive him over to Chrysler and prop him up at his desk, just because insurance paid out three times higher in death at work instances, morbid I know and not serious before people freak out. I am assuming that is what Fetisov is getting at, he saw what they were doing as a Team event, my guess is the insurance and the Wings didn't see it the same way.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

So cloudy. I'm surprised he played in the Alumni game if he has a grudge with the organization.