Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev: Many Factors Behind the Multi-Vehicle Crash on Trakia Motorway

There are many factors behind the crash on Trakia Motorway, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said on November 10.

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior: “There are many causes. There is no communication between the Road Infrastructure Agency’s cameras, which monitor the situation in real time, and the traffic police. There are no electronic information boards warning motorists of hazards on the road, explaining the nature of the danger and advising drivers on what action to take. If these two measures had been implemented over the years, the response would have been preventive rather than reactive.”

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Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior: “Let us wait for the briefing and the on-site inspection by the National Investigation Service. Visibility shortly before the accident was around 70–80 metres. There was fog, but it was not very thick. The fog suddenly became much thicker at the scene, triggering the chain-reaction crash.

Vehicles travelling from Sofia towards Burgas piled up extremely quickly. Weather conditions deteriorated sharply. Visibility, which had initially been 70–80 metres, dropped to just 10 metres. This was the cause of the initial accident. What happened next to the drivers approaching from behind is clear.”

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Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior: “Once the National Investigation Service officers have completed their on-site inspection, the vehicles will begin to be cleared. A team of nine investigators will arrive in about an hour.

Everything required of us has been done. An operation was organised extremely quickly. I would like to commend our colleagues who carried the injured out on stretchers.

Access to the centre of the accident site is impossible. Thanks to the fact that the injured were carried out by hand, the large number of ambulances that responded, and the hospitals that acted appropriately and swiftly, the injured received prompt medical assistance.”