‘Prague Spring’ Leader Dubcek Injured in Wreck
Alexander Dubcek, leader of the 1968 “Prague Spring” reforms, suffered a broken spine and chest injuries in an auto accident Tuesday, a doctor attending him said.
“Mr. Dubcek’s spine is broken,” Dr. Zdenka Liparova said. “He cannot be operated on because his condition still does not permit surgery.”
Liparova said Dubcek, 70, was unconscious after medication for shock but added that reported pelvis and rib injuries were less serious than originally feared.
She added that his spinal cord did not seem to have been injured but added, “It cannot be established at the moment.”
The spinal cord is a cylindrical structure of the central nervous system, connecting the body with the brain.
Police said Dubcek and his driver were catapulted from the doors of their BMW as it plunged off a highway in heavy rain about 60 miles from Prague.
Dubcek led the 1968 reforms intended to bring “socialism with a human face” to Czechoslovakia. But in August, 1968, a Soviet-led invasion by troops from five Warsaw Pact countries crushed the reforms.
Dubcek became the president of Parliament in Czechoslovakia’s post-Communist government and is now the leader of Slovakia’s Social Democrats.
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