Three of the victims in the serious accident with a public transport bus on Friday evening remain in serious condition.
A total of 8 people are being treated in several Sofia hospitals. The number of victims has increased to 4, after two of the seriously injured died yesterday.
During the investigation, it became clear that there was a race between the two cars involved in the accident, moving at over 150 km/h. The drivers have licenses issued in the Czech Republic, where basic education is not required for a driver's license.
They have about a year of driving experience behind the wheel, but they already have registered traffic violations. Their financial situation will also be checked, because they have low incomes, but demonstrate a luxurious lifestyle. There is also evidence that they gravitate towards the group of "Kalashniki" from Botunec, who are engaged in pimping.
The quick reaction of the firefighters from the Kremikovtsi service prevented an even worse tragedy in the accident on “Chelopeshko Shosse“.
According to the firefighters, the car that crashed into the public transport bus was already burning inside the vehicle, and if the fire had not been brought under control immediately, the passengers could have died in the flames.
Firefighters Blagoy Blagoev and Daniel Vlahov, who were the first to arrive at the scene of the accident, told how they reacted in the first minutes after the serious accident.
Blagoev explained that the team heard a loud bang and immediately headed to the scene of the accident.
“The duty was going on normally, we were performing our duties until we heard loud thunder, a crash, something unusual for the area surrounding us. We got out as quickly as possible, looked at each other with our colleagues, went out into the street and saw an overturned Sofia public transport bus in the distance. Basically, we just looked at each other, got into the fire truck, connected and headed towards the accident.“
Upon arriving at the scene, the firefighters were faced with a grim picture - a burning car that had crashed into the overturned bus, and many injured people.
„When we got to the scene, the sight was not at all pleasant. There was a car that had crashed into the overturned bus, the car was already on fire, human voices could be heard inside. We quickly set up a firefighting line, and our colleague Daniel Vlahov began to extinguish the burning car, in which it turned out there were three passengers. I started the evacuation from the hatch, because it was the most convenient.“
According to him, there were also injured passengers inside the bus who could not move on their own.
„There were about seven people injured, they could not move.“ Daniel Vlahov said that his first task was to control the fire in the car.„The car had crashed into the bus, the engine compartment of the car was on fire. And the passengers were inside the car, they started to get out through the doors, through the driver's door and through the front window, to sneak towards the fire. From there we made them move to the back of the bus.“
The firefighters also told about the second car involved in the accident, which was split after hitting a tree and a bus stop.
„It was split through the bus stop after hitting a tree and the situation there was almost the same - injured people with broken legs and so on.“
According to Vlahov, one of the drivers showed aggressive behavior immediately after the accident.„He started walking back and forth, aggressive. A lot of people had immediately gathered from the „Botunets“ neighborhood. They started supporting him and arguing with him. Thanks to the police and us, such actions did not come to pass. They were quite aggressive.“
The firefighters are adamant that the impact was extremely strong. Their initial assessment on the spot was that the cars were moving at a very high speed. Regarding the first victims of the accident, the firefighters said that the two Indian citizens were found outside the bus in an extremely serious condition.
“Actually, when we went, they were not inside the bus. One was lying in the grass on the side, maybe he had flown out. Lifeless. The other was alive, but in critical condition. It was a very serious condition.“ The firefighters also submitted the first information to the operations center about the scale of the incident, after which ambulances and additional teams were sent to the scene.
„The most important thing was to put out the car, because if the car had not been put out, everyone inside would have burned, and it was not known what would happen to the public transport bus.“
According to Vlahov, the situation was further complicated by the fact that the bus was equipped with a gas system. According to the firefighters, it was their quick reaction that prevented the fire from spreading.
“The car was catching fire pretty badly. If we hadn't gone in time and seen it, it would have set the bus on fire.“See more in Viktor Borisov's live coverage.
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