One killed in accident on Trakia highway, 30 men from Afghanistan urgently examined on day of forgiveness
The driver of the bus carrying 46 men is wanted
Sunday, shortly before 11 o’clock. The corridor in front of the Emergency Department of the “Dr. Stoyan Kirkovich” University Hospital in Stara Zagora is full of young, swarthy men. On a stretcher outside the door lies a young man with his head bandaged with bloody bandages. Next to him, paramedics stop another stretcher with wheels, in which lies a boy about 10 years old. It is conscious and looks to its left for the hand of the man next to it.
“They are brothers,” explains a nurse. The little one wants to give courage to his older brother by squeezing his right hand tightly.
It soon becomes clear that the child is concussed and needs to be admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. A scan showed no brain damage.
The men outside the examination room were from Afghanistan, they said. As usual, none of them have any identity documents. The next illegal migrants who crashed on the Trakia highway in an attempt to secretly transit through Bulgaria on their way to Western Europe.
The incident, which took place in the Chirpan area at kilometer 165 in the direction of Sofia, was reported 5 minutes after midnight, Stara Zagora District Prosecutor Dicho Atanasov told “24 Chasa”. He is on vacation, but he came immediately to the scene of the accident. Later, the police released an official message that the report of the accident was filed at 5 o’clock in the morning.
A bus with Sofia registration in which 46 people were traveling crashed. Of the passengers, 1 died on the spot, many were injured. The driver, most likely a Pakistani national, has fled and is being sought.
“Actually, there were two buses with migrants, we still don’t know if there is a connection between them or if it happened by chance,” continued the district attorney.
“The police officers on duty at this place stopped the first bus, which had 50 people in it, for inspection. There were no problems with them, they started processing the people. At that time, the other bus passed by them, without the uniformed people being able to turn it around attention. Probably, after seeing the inspection, the driver hit the accelerator. At that moment, the left rear tire burst while driving and the vehicle became uncontrollable. It literally began to skid the road and hit the guardrail twice to the right until it stopped. From hit one person dead, everyone’s luggage scattered around. In the commotion the driver disappeared.”
“I should also say that this is an old cargo van with no windows so you can’t see what’s inside it. It looks like it’s going to fall apart at any moment and should be scrapped. It’s inhumane to drive in such conditions people crammed in like anchovies. The car was overloaded and that’s probably why the tire burst,” Dicho Atanasov admits.
“We were very tired and fell asleep. We woke up from the impact, we were very scared,” managed to say in English one of the migrants, aged 16, already in the university hospital of Stara Zagora. There, with 6 ambulances – 3 from Stara Zagora, 2 from Chirpan and 1 from Bratya Daskalovi, 30 people from the fatal bus were brought for examination in several courses. The good news is that overall everyone’s general condition is good. Four of those examined were released immediately, the wounds of others were treated, at least 8 of the injured, including the little boy, had to be hospitalized.
Around noon, on his way from Burgas, where he had been the day before, the acting health minister Asen Medjidiev arrived at the hospital. He recalls how in August he had to come urgently to the same hospital when a Serbian bus with children crashed again on the Trakia highway. There were no deaths then, but some were more seriously injured. And it was Sunday again, but in the evening.
The director of the hospital, Prof. Yovcho Yovchev, is also here, long before it was known that Minister Medjidiev would come to the place.
“In Stara Zagora, they have experience in similar incidents and reacted quickly and adequately”, is the assessment of the minister. “The night shift remained at work and treated the wounded with their colleagues from the day shift. Two orthopedic surgeons, two neurosurgeons, two thoracic surgeons and 4 doctors from the Emergency Department worked.
One man with a thigh injury will be operated on, another with a broken second cervical vertebra does not need surgery, there are people with chest injuries, but they are all without serious disabilities. There is no need to drive people to other hospitals or call external consultants from other cities in Stara Zagora. In our estimation, three of the patients are full-term,” summarized the caretaker health minister, after going down to the Emergency Department and seeing some of the migrants, who perhaps did not understand who the man with the glasses was, so concerned about their health.
Asen Medzhidiev added that he is in constant contact with his fellow ministers of defense and interior affairs and they are all working on the case as a team. None of the doctors, the rest of the medical staff and the police said that Sunday is the Day of Forgiveness in the Christian religion and he should be at home with his family at that time.
Healthy migrants will be accommodated in the refugee center in Harmanli. A pre-trial proceeding was initiated in the case, and the work of the field investigators continued today until late in the day.
Two men were later reported to have been detained and charged.
