Four people injured in the pile-up crashes on the Trakia motorway near Yambol were discharged this morning from the Heart and Brain hospital in Burgas. Three women and a man had been treated in the orthopaedics and chest surgery wards.
The crashes happened at about 7am on Tuesday, 10 November, at the Zimnitsa junction. In thick fog, 86 vehicles collided, in both directions, towards Burgas and towards Sofia. The same day, three ambulances with medical teams set out from the Burgas hospital.
Earlier on this story: 36 people still in hospital after the Trakia motorway crashes, one patient in Burgas in life-threatening condition
Heart and Brain took in six injured people, three men and three women. A Romanian citizen in a serious condition in intensive care and an infectious disease doctor who works with children are still there. One more injured person is in a serious condition at the Deva Maria hospital in Burgas.
At first, 11 people had died. Early yesterday, a 50-year-old man in a very serious condition died at Dr Ivan Seliminski hospital in Sliven, bringing the toll to 12. More than 50 people were injured.
One of those discharged is an 81-year-old woman who was travelling by bus from Levski to Nesebar for physiotherapy. She told BTA the bus left at about 3am and the crash came between 7am and 8am. Passengers heard a rumble and a bang at the front. They were drowsy and only later realised it was a crash.
The woman remembers a big lorry loaded with wheat. After the impacts, the bus windows began to break and the driver opened the doors. Someone shouted at passengers to get out fast so the bus would not catch fire. At first she did not know what injuries she had, but her arm hurt badly and she could not move her fingers. "In my life I have never seen fog like this," she said. She has only praise for the doctors.
Another woman who was discharged took the first impact for sudden braking. Inside the bus there was wheat, broken glass and fallen seats. Passengers heard only rumbles and did not know where they came from.
A third woman was among the last to leave the bus. She said every new car hit it again. The door was locked and it was dark inside. The driver unlocked it from outside after going to the front.
The man who was discharged was driving a car, the fifth one hit in the Burgas direction. His car was crushed "like a tin can". He does not know how he opened the door and got out, but he believes he was very lucky. "The fog was very thick – like driving into an unlit tunnel with your headlights off," he told BTA.
He saw the red cab of the wheat lorry with a car wedged into it. The lorry driver was knocking on the window and shouting for help. The man tried twice to break the glass and failed, then pulled the driver out using a jack. After that he waved the light of his phone to warn approaching drivers.
All four thank the people who helped them at the scene and the doctors at Heart and Brain.