Signals from people wearing high-visibility vests and the car’s smooth braking helped Lyubomira Minkova and her husband avoid being involved in the serious crash on the Trakia motorway. The former investigator and prosecutor told bTV how she reached the scene of the incident and helped one of the injured people.
Visibility in the Karnobat area was around 20 meters due to dense fog. As they approached the crash, it improved to around 100 meters. Minkova and her husband then noticed people by the guardrails, waving their hands and brandishing high-visibility vests.
“A very large man was standing at the back of it, and I am very grateful to him. In fact, he saved our lives, because that was when I realized how dangerous the situation was,” Lyubomira Minkova recounted.The man was next to a stopped truck and was waving both hands. His warning allowed Minkova’s husband to slow down smoothly, without braking sharply.
After getting out of the car, Minkova saw 30–40 people with suitcases in the grassy area. In the opposite lane, there was a bus that had been hit by a truck. She continued for around 30 meters past a stopped lorry and reached two cars that had been turned around, facing against the direction of travel toward Burgas.
The driver took the impact upon himself
In one of the cars, which was yellow, the driver was trapped in the front section. According to Minkova, the side by the driver’s seat had been crushed up to his torso, while the other half of the front section had remained relatively intact.
“This man took the entire impact upon himself,” she said.Minkova believes that the driver made a maneuver or took a position that protected the other people in the car. Four or five other people were traveling in it. She pointed out that the seats on the driver’s side and directly behind him had suffered the most damage, while the passengers on the other side remained relatively unharmed.
Among the injured was a boy named Branko, who had been sitting behind the driver. Minkova went down a slope about five or six meters high to reach him. According to her, he was in serious condition, and his legs were in a water-filled ditch in low temperatures.
A few days after the crash, Minkova received a call from the boy’s relatives. They thanked her and told her that Branko was in a hospital in Sliven. All the passengers in the yellow car had been on their way to work.
Appeal for safer roads
Lyubomira Minkova said that the tragedy could have been avoided. She linked the case to the international “Vision Zero” standard, which, in her view, is based on accepting that human errors are always possible and on building systems that limit their consequences.
As examples, she cited road signs, road infrastructure and collective responsibility for safety. Minkova also spoke about dangerous sections of the Hainboaz Pass, where, according to her, roadworks are still ongoing and significant freight traffic passes through.
Sources: btvnovinite.bg