Prosecutor's Office Will Not Press Charges Against the Romanian Lorry Driver Following Trakia Motorway Crash

The Prosecutor’s office will not press charges against the driver who was detained following the serious accident on Trakia Motorway. A Romanian truck driver, who was involved in the initial chain-reaction crash on the Trakia Highway near Yambol, has been detained for 24 hours. Eleven people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the serious accident. Prosecutors stated that he will be released after they conduct another interview.

The Romanian lorry driver, whose vehicle was at the front of the first multiple-vehicle collision on the Trakia Motorway near Yambol, was taken into police custody.

Senior Commissioner Dobrin Dimitrov, Director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Yambol: "The driver has been questioned and detained in our custody. Further questioning will also take place today."

It is still unclear how the lorry was being driven immediately before the accident.

Senior Commissioner Dobrin Dimitrov, Director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Yambol: "According to the initial information we have, after travelling approximately 70 to 80 metres, as eyewitnesses have described it, they suddenly entered a patch of fog. Visibility was affected by the fog, and they suddenly found themselves in a dense fog bank where visibility was no more than 10 metres. The lorry was most probably travelling very slowly or entering from the emergency lane."

Doychin Doychev, Yambol District Prosecutor: "We will establish whether it had stopped or was obstructing the road. We have no information that it was positioned across the carriageway. Even the footage of the lorry taken yesterday shows that it was within its lane. However, whether it had slowed down or stopped is a key question that we will investigate."

The company that owns the lorry said the driver had nearly 20 years of professional experience and had been operating mainly in Bulgaria for the past seven years. On the day of the accident, he was travelling from Sofia to Burgas.

Ilie Corlan, owner of the Romanian haulage company: "He knows the roads like the back of his hand. The fog was exceptionally dense and visibility was almost zero. There was another vehicle in front of him which had broken down, so he slowed down to avoid an accident. At that point, a bus travelling behind him crashed directly into the rear of his lorry. He stopped at the scene of the accident, in the far-right lane. A lorry carrying grain then appeared, which was probably overloaded. It crashed into them, tearing the cab off the lorry and causing a fire. He also managed to rescue the driver of the car."

Firefighters who were the first to arrive at the scene and risked their lives to rescue people trapped in vehicles crushed beyond recognition have described the devastating crash as unprecedented in Bulgaria's recent history.

Senior Firefighter Ivan Velikov: "It turned out that we could not reach the injured, so we had to cut through the crash barriers. Many people were in a state of severe shock. Some were sitting in their cars without moving or speaking."

Inspector Stancho Nankov, Regional Fire Safety and Civil Protection Service, Yambol: "When I arrived at the scene, I witnessed absolute horror. The sight was simply devastating. The cars were crushed, there were so many injured people, and the scene was horrifying. Nobody could have expected anything like it. I could never even have imagined such a thing, yet I experienced it first-hand. We could hear shouting and screams. Some people were trapped and unable to get out. They were screaming and calling for help."

The Yambol Regional Governor denied reports that an alert about reduced visibility had been made to the emergency number 112 minutes before the crash. He also commented on photographs from the toll cameras, which have reportedly shown dense fog.

Georgi Chalakov, Yambol Regional Governor: "Look, I have also seen those photographs, but they do not show whether the fog was particularly dense or whether conditions were relatively normal. From what I could see in the toll camera images, visibility appears to have been at least 70 to 80 metres, since the vehicles can be seen in the photographs. Ultimately, however, this is a matter of weather and meteorology, and we cannot control the weather."

The regional administration also said that any proposals to improve safety on the motorway should come from the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) and would be implemented if submitted.

Ten Investigators to Establish Causes of Trakia Motorway Crash, After Which 11 Died and 51 Were Injured