Second presidential candidate admits killing pedestrian in road accident
Last month one of the Social Democrats' candidates for president, the popular Ombudsman Otakar Motejl, suffered a minor PR disaster when a newspaper revealed he had accidentally killed a pedestrian in a road accident in the late 1970s. Mr Motejl was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving, although he never served a prison sentence and was later pardoned. One of the many people who said Mr Motejl should have told the public about the accident was rival Social Democrat candidate Jaroslav Bures, the man later chosen by his party as their official nominee. So imagine the irony when Mr Bures was forced to admit on Thursday that he himself had killed a pedestrian in the early 1980s. The police say Mr Bures bore no blame for the accident, but the damage to his campaign has already been done. Vaclav Zak is the editor-in-chief of the bi-monthly Listy.
"It was unintended - he couldn't prevent it - but of course he made a mistake when he criticised Mr Motejl. It was a mistake, but then he makes a lot of mistakes unfortunately."
Nonetheless, though, Mr Bures is the second presidential candidate to admit killing a pedestrian. It's a rather strange coincidence isn't it?
"Yes, I think it is."
What does it tell us about Czech driving habits?
"I think that Czech driving habits are - especially now - very, very bad. The Police President told the BBC last week that drivers are the biggest criminals in the country. There are 1,200 people killed in accidents every year, and only 210 murders every year. So it's six times more."
Right, so six times as many road deaths as murders each year in the Czech Republic. Looking at Mr Bures now, he does strike many people as a rather foolhardy person, he knows that he doesn't enjoy the unanimous support of his own party in the presidential race. He's suffered various embarrassing PR disasters this week - how do you rate his chances?
"It's very difficult to forecast anything, but I think this first round of elections will not produce a result. Many Social Democrats do not want to elect a president in this first attempt, because they are waiting for Mr Zeman who says he will only stand in the second attempt. My personal bet is that nobody will be elected in this first three-round election."