Editor's note: This story was updated at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
In a grim reminder of the potential dangers of Moscow roads, a prolific actress and television host was killed in a hit-and-run crash while riding in a gypsy cab that she had hailed down after her own car was laid up for repairs from an earlier crash.
Marina Golub, 54, who appeared in about 60 movies and hosted TV shows on Rossia 1, was killed when a Cadillac ran a red light at around 12:05 a.m. at the intersection of Vernadsky Prospekt and Lobachevskaya Ulitsa in southwest Moscow, police said Wednesday. The incident was caught on a roadside camera and leaked to the press.
The driver of the Cadillac struck three cars — a Hyundai, Lada and KIA — before speeding off.
A passerby called for help, and paramedics arrived quickly, but Golub and her gypsy-cab driver were declared dead at the scene, Vesti.ru .
Their car, the Hyundai, rolled over several times from the impact of the crash, and rescuers had to cut Golub's body out of the crumpled vehicle, the report said, adding that the actress had been seated next to the driver and had not been wearing a seat belt.
Police said the identity of the Cadillac driver has been established and appealed for him to turn himself in.
"He has been repeatedly fined in the past for numerous traffic violations," a police official told Interfax.
The violations included speeding and driving on the wrong side of the road, according to Vesti. The driver also has been involved in 10 crashes over the past 12 years and found guilty in six of them, Lifenews.ru? reported.
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev ordered Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin to personally oversee the crash investigation, and Yakunin, in turn, ordered city traffic police to take measures to prevent this kind of accident from happening again, including a tightening of legislation.
Golub usually drove her own car, a Toyota RAV 4 crossover SUV, but she had taken it to a garage for repairs after colliding with a Citroen sedan on Tverskoi Bulvar on Sept. 18, police told national media outlets, without specifying who was responsible for the crash.
Police also said her gypsy-cab driver should not have been behind the wheel because his license had been revoked for 20 months following a drunk driving incident in December.
Golub, born in Moscow on Dec. 8, 1957, studied at the Moscow Art Theater before appearing in numerous films, starting with "Yunost Petra" (Peter's Youth) in 1980 and most recently in this year's "Mamy" (Mothers). She also acted in theatrical productions and hosted the television shows "Utrennyaya Pochta" (The Morning Post) and "Dobroye Utro!" (Good Morning!), among others, on Rossia 1.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev offered his condolences, writing in a telegram to the Moscow Art Theater that Golub was “one of the most prominent and sought-after actresses of today.”
A funeral for Golub will be held at the Moscow Art Theater at 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by a burial at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in western Moscow. The cemetery is the final resting spot of numerous actors and directors as well as other public figures whose lives were cut short, including slain journalists Anna Politkovskaya and Dmitry Kholodov and central banker Andrei Kozlov.
Golub is survived by an adult daughter, Anastasia.
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