The bass player for Latvia’s top pop group, Prāta Vētra, has been killed in an automobile accident, Latvian media report. Gundars Mauševics was killed May 24 about 10 kilometers from Rīga on the Rīga-Jelgava highway, the newspaper Diena reported.

The news agency LETA said it had confirmed the musician’s death. His body was found near an Audi 80 automobile that had run off the road into a peat bog. Police suspect the accident happened up to two days earlier, the news agency said.

Mauševics, known by the nickname Mumiņš, was one of five members of the band, whose lineup has not changed since the group formed in 1989. The band is known outside Latvia as BrainStorm.

Other members of the band are lead vocalist Renārs Kaupers, drummer Kaspars Roga, keyboardist Māris Mihelsons and guitarist Jānis Jubalts.

Road accidents have claimed or seriously injured a number of popular Latvian artists in recent years. Dainis Virga, drummer for the Liepāja rock band Līvi, was killed last July 27 along with sound operator Juris Jakovļevs when the vehicle they were riding in was involved in an accident near Daugavpils. The group’s guitarist Ainars Virga, who was driving, and bass player Jānis Grodums, were injured in the accident. Singer Igo (Rodrigo Fomins) was seriously injured in an automobile accident in May 2000 and spent several months recuperating. Singer Māra Kalniņa of the popular post-folk group Iļģi was killed in 1999 in an accident near Rīga.

Latvia has one of the worst traffic death records in Europe, according to several international organizations that monitor road safety. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 114 people died on Latvian roads, according to the national Road Traffic Safety Directorate.

The pop group Prāta Vētra has lost its bass guitarist Gundars Mauševics (second from right). He was killed in a May 24 automobile accident. (Photo from BrainStorm’s official Web site)