Patient transported in an ambulance is one of two fatalities in a serious road accident (update)

A serious road accident between a car and an ambulance occured on July 24 on the Sliven - Nova Zagora road (Southern Bulgaria), at the junction for the village of Gavrailovo.

The patient transported in the ambulance and the driver of the car died.

The ambulance was transporting a patient with a heart attack to the district hospital in Sliven when shortly after the village of Zlati Voyvoda, at the turn-off for Gavrailovo, it caught up with the car and hit it from behind.

The driver of the ambulance and the doctor were seriously and a 63-year-old woman from the car were injured.

"The medical team - the doctor and the driver were examined, no serious injuries and were dismissed for home treatment, while the woman who was in the passenger car had chest and abdominal injuries, non-life threatening. She was admitted in the surgery ward," said Dr. Todor Suvankov, head of the emergency medical service in Sliven.

The condition of the roadway in the area of the crash and visibility at the intersection are some of the factors that may be the cause for such a road accident.

"Look at the grass here, it is at least one metre high, visibility is very limited at this junction and the road markings are not in a very good condition. On this road, I had to stop more intensively in several places and I have some remarks in terms of the asphalt pavement, it is rather worn ou" said Diana Russinova, European Transport Policy Centre.

Russinova also commented on other possible causes of the crash.

"At this intersection, either the car was hit in front of it or the car has entered dangerously for some reasons and has performed some manoeuvre, which confirms one thing we have talked about many times, that unfortunately Bulgarian drivers are not taught very much how to act in an emergency situation."

To make it easier to identify problems when accidents occur with ambulances and other emergency vehicles, road experts are suggesting that video recorders be installed in these vehicles.

Images by Ivan Yanev