Cacak twist: woman hit by ambulance is alive in ICU
Hospital walks back early reports that the woman died after an ambulance struck her on the Cacak bypass; she was admitted alive and is in critical condition.
- A woman was struck by an ambulance around 6 p.m. on the Cacak bypass while crossing the road away from a marked crosswalk.
- Initial reports that she had died at the scene were later denied.
- The Cacak General Hospital confirmed she was admitted alive, in critical condition, to the intensive care unit.
- Traffic on the bypass was fully closed during the investigation, with vehicles diverted.
The story that raced across social media on Saturday evening began with the worst possible line: that a woman had been killed after an ambulance struck her on the bypass near Cacak. A few hours later came the twist. Cacak General Hospital said the woman had not lost her life, but was fighting for it in the intensive care unit.
The crash happened around 6 p.m. on the bypass, close to a large shopping center. According to the first accounts, the ambulance, registered in nearby Lucani, was travelling with its lights and siren on, meaning it was on an emergency run. At that moment the woman was crossing the road away from a marked pedestrian crossing. The driver, witnesses said, could not avoid her.
The scene was a grim one. Traffic on the bypass, one of the busiest roads in that part of the city, was shut down entirely while investigators worked, and vehicles were rerouted. It was precisely that flood of information from the ground, mixed with footage and photos shared by passers-by, that produced the original and inaccurate report of a death.
What actually happened to the injured woman?
The decisive turn came from the Cacak hospital. The correction to the early reports was unambiguous: the woman is alive. Doctors said she had been admitted in extremely serious condition and placed in the intensive care unit, where she is receiving all necessary treatment.
“The patient injured in the traffic accident was admitted in critical condition to the intensive care unit,” said Dr Marija Stranjac of Cacak General Hospital.
The gap between the first and second version of the story is not a matter of nuance. For the injured woman’s family it is the difference between outright tragedy and hope, however fragile. The speed at which an unverified claim now spreads showed its dark side: while the hospital was still doing its work, the internet had already passed a verdict that, mercifully, was wrong.
How did the collision on the bypass occur?
The circumstances are still under investigation, but the basic sequence can be traced from the first witness accounts. The ambulance was on an official emergency run, which means its rotating lights and siren were on, putting it in a mode where it has priority in traffic.
“The ambulance was running with its lights and siren on; the woman ended up on the road away from the crossing, and it was all over in a few seconds,” one eyewitness recounted.
It is exactly that combination, an emergency vehicle on a fast run and a pedestrian on the carriageway outside a marked crossing, that makes such crashes so difficult to reconstruct and to assign responsibility for. The emergency service exists to save lives and, racing against time, often moves faster than the rest of the traffic. On the other hand, crossing the street away from a crosswalk leaves a driver only a few seconds to react.
The official findings have yet to establish every detail, from the vehicle’s speed to the woman’s exact position at the moment of impact. Until then, the most important fact stands: contrary to the first reports, the woman is alive, and doctors in Cacak are working to keep it that way.
How often do cases like this remind us to wait for an official confirmation before sharing news about someone’s fate?
