A nurse from the Heart and Brain hospital in Burgas helped more than 50 people hurt in pile-ups in thick fog on the Trakia motorway, she said. A lorry driver from Burgas stopped traffic on the carriageway.
The crashes happened on the morning of Tuesday 10 November, on both carriageways near the Zimnitsa junction, where fog covered part of the motorway. Later that day, prime minister Rumen Radev told reporters in Varna that 11 people had died and 48 were injured.
Earlier on this story: Vazrazhdane calls for personal responsibility for the crashes on «Trakia» near Yambol
The nurse was travelling from Yambol to Burgas for work. At about 7am she neared the scene and saw a man in plain clothes running along the motorway, waving at cars to stop. She pulled into the hard shoulder and at about 7:10am asked people nearby to call 112.
She says emergency crews took nearly 40 minutes to arrive. Until then, she bandaged the injured with first-aid kits that she took herself from the crushed cars. Other people called her over to injured people still in their vehicles. She noticed foreigners among the victims.
She says people who were unhurt stood to one side, smoked and watched. Even when she asked, they would not hand over their first-aid kits.
People trapped in the cars shouted for help, but she could not pull them out alone. Many of them died, and at one point the shouting stopped, the nurse said. She compared what she saw to a horror film.
When police and the ambulance service arrived, the nurse told them where the injured were, what injuries they had and which cases were urgent. She says the ambulance crews could not manage to help, and police officers came to ask her questions. The only ambulances came from Yambol and Sliven, and each took three or four injured people.
The nurse says police officers cannot give first aid and just stood and waited. She believes every officer should be able to bandage a wound.
The lorry driver was heading from Burgas to Sofia. He says everyone was driving normally given the poor visibility, but after the Zimnitsa turn-off the fog suddenly thickened. He was driving at 75km/h and could see no more than 15-20 metres ahead.
Ahead of him were crashed and overturned lorries and a burning car. He stopped, put on high-visibility clothing and walked back to stop traffic. The lorry behind him stopped 2-3 metres from him. He considers himself lucky.
With other drivers, he pulled injured people from the grass and from cars. They moved with difficulty but could stand on their own. The drivers gave them water and tissues.
They could not free the people trapped in the overturned cars because the doors would not open. Firefighters opened them later. Next to the guardrail was a car lying on its roof and wedged in, and the driver thought someone alive was inside.
He got the BG ALERT message at least 30 minutes after the crashes but did not read it, because he was helping his colleagues.
The two do not know each other. Hours after the crashes the driver continued his journey, while the nurse stayed with the injured.
Updated (11.11, 07:36): Videos added from bTV Media Group, Новините на NOVA.
Comments (1)
50 рянени? боже, каква мъгла е имало тогава!