A serious accident between a bus with Romanian registration and a car with Dutch registration took place around 2:00 on the night of August 6 on the road Veliko Tarnovo – Ruse, in the section between the villages of Kutsina and Polikraishte. There are 4 dead and 8 injured who traveled on the bus. Three of the victims are Romanians and one is a Turkish citizen.
Romania sent five medical helicopters, which landed at Gorna Oryahovitsa airport.
According to initial reports, the bus, driven by a Turkish citizen, hit the passenger car, which was stopped at an emergency site, then hit a tree and stopped after perhaps another 140 meters. There were no passengers in the stopped car, driven by a Bulgarian citizen and with two other people in it, at the time of the impact.
9 people were taken to Veliko Tarnovo hospital. One had minor injuries, so he was released for home treatment. The rest – women and men, under the age of 60 – have been admitted for treatment. “One was in a serious condition – with a severe brain injury and was discharged early this morning. The rest are cared for and served by our teams, they are stabilized, primary surgical treatments have been performed. Five of them are Romanian citizens, the others are Turkish,” he said. Dr. Popov from the Veliko Tarnovo Hospital.
Romanian citizens were transported by helicopters by their “Emergency Service”. “The injuries are severe, but the patients were stable. I think we could have completed their treatment in our hospital. But the consul of the Republic of Romania informed us that this is their emergency protocol – as soon as there are injured citizens abroad, they have the resource and the possibilities to transport them for treatment in their hospitals”. Two of the helicopters have already landed in a hospital in Bucharest, the doctor said.
The Turkish nationals remain in the hospital, they are in a stable condition. “We cannot establish the identity, the internal affairs authorities are helping us, as some of them were brought without personal documents,” added Popov. According to him, they will all stay as long as necessary, but certainly 72 hours to monitor any consequences, since they all have a brain injury.
The road in the area was temporarily closed. There were teams of police, fire and “Emergency” on site, who had to deal with freeing the trapped people.
A total of 27 people were traveling in the bus, which is Romanian, of which 2 drivers – mainly Romanian citizens and 6 Turkish. They were returning from a trip to Turkey. They entered Bulgaria around 10 p.m.
“The two drivers have been detained for 24 hours and their actions are being clarified. The evaluation of the evidence is mainly focused on their actions,” said supervising prosecutor Iliyan Blagoev. Blood samples were taken and the results will be released at a later stage.
The reasons are in the process of being clarified. In this case, pre-trial proceedings have been initiated under the leadership of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Veliko Tarnovo.
“An inspection has been carried out. We are working on all versions – both human error, the fault of the driver, technical malfunction and all the others that would contribute to this accident,” said NSlS investigator Branimira Vergova.
The investigation into the serious road accident was taken over by investigators from the National Investigation Service. An inspection was carried out, numerous interrogations were carried out.
Hours after the crash, experts from the State Road Safety Agency began an on-site inspection. The initial inspection has shown that there are deficiencies in the road infrastructure and unsafe objects in the roadside space.
All findings will be combined in a report and will be sent as soon as possible to the competent institutions, together with all previously identified problems and recommendations for the I-5 road in the Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo section. The inspection continues, the agency announced.
The speed limit in this section of the road is 90 km/h, it was announced at a briefing at the scene of the accident.
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