/View.info/ Human error is the leading version of the accident on the Struma highway. This was stated at a briefing by the Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, who was informed that the victims were 44, not 45.
The version of a terrorist act is excluded.
According to a survivor of the accident on the “Struma” highway, 8 were rescued, not 7. This was told to the investigators by one of the victims accommodated in “Pirogov”, who helped the other survivors to get out of the burning bus.
The surviving young man first told this in a personal meeting with the spokesperson of the chief prosecutor Siika Mileva in “Pirogov”, after which he repeated his story to the investigators. However, there are 7 people admitted to the hospital and therefore it is yet to be established whether there is an eighth survivor, as information is also available in the Macedonian media.
In addition to the young man, another one of the injured also testified. They give one-sided testimony, the others are yet to be questioned.
During the press conference, another discrepancy arose – not 45, but 44 were the victims of the crash – that’s how many charred bodies were found, and it is yet to be verified whether there was any transfer or disembarkation of passengers. The lists will be compared with the other three buses that also traveled on this route.
The main version on which investigators and prosecutors work. So far it is clear that the driver veered off the road to the right, straddling the guardrail, which caused the sparks and then the subsequent fire. The guardrail also closed the back door, preventing people from getting out.
In addition to human error, the investigators are also checking whether the cause of the fatal accident was not the road. In the words of Borislav Sarafov, “the island space on the road did not belong there”.
The investigators will establish whether the many victims are not also due to the road itself. According to the head of the team of investigators and prosecutors Marijan Marinov, it is very likely that the markings, signaling and guardrail confused the bus driver:
“There’s a water fountain sign, there’s an off-ramp, and this dividing island with the barrier is right between the freeway and that off-ramp. This barrier, which is normally a resilient barrier to keep a vehicle from leaving the roadway, in this case is an obstacle, in which the bus ran into”.
By order of the chief prosecutor, Ivan Geshev, an inspection of the road, markings, guardrails began.
“If in the course of the investigation, sufficient data is collected about a crime of a general nature, the materials from it will be sent to the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office, which will seek criminal responsibility of the guilty officials,” said the spokesperson of the chief prosecutor Siika Mileva.
Today at the National Investigative Service, the Deputy Prosecutor General and Director of the NSLS Borislav Sarafov and the spokesperson of the Prosecutor General Siika Mileva gave a briefing in connection with the serious road accident on the Struma highway/BGNES
Responsibility will also be sought from other officials if the information from Skopje is confirmed that the bus did not have the right to travel abroad. Documentation is expected to arrive in the coming days.
The investigators categorically ruled out that the cause of the crash was an explosion, as well as that there was a terrorist act.
“We took acetone wipes from the bus for the presence of explosives. These results, compared with the testimony of the surviving witnesses, with the testimony of the witnesses who responded immediately, we categorically reject this version – it is not a terrorist act,” said Sarafov.
In the meantime, it became clear that the Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev ordered the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office to carry out an inspection of the markings and traffic signals of the highways in the country.
Tomorrow, prosecutors are going to Skopje, where they will take DNA material from the relatives of the dead on the spot, so that the identification can be done quickly and the bodies can be returned and buried there. They will also bring the documents related to the bus.
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