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Artist News
Swedish investigator clarifies comments that crash that killed Viola Beach may have been “deliberate”
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 11 March 2016
The Swedish crash investigator trying to work out what caused the accident that killed up and coming UK band Viola Beach and their manager last month has clarified comments that were widely reported and which implied that the crash may have been deliberate.
As previously reported, all four members of the band, and their manager Craig Tarry, died after their car drove off a bridge near Stockholm and plunged into the canal below. The group were travelling back to the UK having played at the Where’s The Music? showcase festival.
The bridge in question was raised at the time to allow a boat through, and investigators are trying to work out why the driver of the band’s vehicle carried on driving despite red lights, two barriers and stationary traffic. Earlier in the investigation police said that they didn’t think the driver – who has yet to be identified – was under the influence of drink or drugs.
This week comments by officials seemed to suggest police now thought the driver may have deliberately caused the crash. A police spokesman was quoted in Swedish media as saying that “the driver overtook parked vehicles, using an off-limits part of the bridge. It’s not natural to carry on driving if there’s a stop sign, parked cars and blinking red lights”. They then concluded: “We can’t find any secondary explanation. It looked like the driver acted deliberately”.
But investigator Lars Berglund has now clarified what was meant by those remarks, which is to say that the driver deliberately drove past parked cars onto the off-limits part of the bridge, not that his intention was to then crash into the barrier. Berglund told The Mirror: “I have not suggested that [the driver] was doing this in order to kill himself or the band. I said he was making a move from the right lane to the left lane and that was not accidental. We can see the brake lights. His intention was to stop the car. But maybe his speed was too high and it was too late”.
As previously reported, record label Communion, which worked with Viola Beach on their most recent release, has confirmed that proceeds from the sale of those records will go to the families of the band and their manager.
