Gradina Crossing: Novi Pazar Truck Driver Killed
H. B. (70) from Novi Pazar was pinned under his truck at the Gradina border crossing when an air suspension bag burst. He died at the scene.
- A driver, H. B. (70) from Novi Pazar, was killed at the Gradina border crossing.
- His truck dropped suddenly when an air suspension bag burst as he was checking a fault.
- It is the second tragedy to strike professional drivers from Novi Pazar within days.
- Authorities ruled the death an accident caused by a technical failure, not a crime.
A driver, H. B. (70) from Novi Pazar, lost his life at the Gradina border crossing near Dimitrovgrad on Wednesday evening. He had stopped his truck because of a fault and stepped out to see what was wrong. At that moment an air suspension bag, the leveling unit, burst and the vehicle dropped sharply.
The driver was pinned beneath the truck. He died at the scene, before help could do anything. Officers arrived and carried out an inspection.
According to their findings, this was an accident caused by a mechanical failure, not a criminal act. That means no charges will be filed, though it does nothing to ease the loss.
How the accident happened
An air suspension system holds a heavy vehicle at a stable height. When one of these bags gives way without warning, more than a tonne of metal drops within seconds. A driver standing under the chassis at that moment has no time to move.
That is exactly what happened to H. B. An experienced man, decades behind the wheel, he approached the vehicle as he had done countless times before. A fault that looks routine at first glance proved fatal.
Word spread quickly through Novi Pazar, where the victim was known as a veteran professional driver. In a town that ties much of its income to transport, accidents like this do not remain a distant statistic. They come with a name, a family and colleagues who shared the road with the same man only a day earlier.
The tragedy is all the heavier because it comes just one day after another driver from Novi Pazar was found dead on the road, at a border crossing in Bulgaria. The two cases are not connected, but they struck the same community within hours of each other.
Why do experienced drivers keep dying?
Professional drivers spend weeks on the road, often alone, with vehicles they must monitor and maintain themselves. When a fault appears at a parking area or a border crossing, they rarely have a workshop nearby. Many then crawl under the vehicle themselves, trusting their own experience.
That experience, however, offers no protection against a mechanical failure that arrives without warning. The industry has warned for years that no one should work under a raised vehicle without safety supports, yet conditions in the field often rule out that caution. Delivery deadlines, fatigue and habit all work against the driver.
The Gradina accident raises a question the transport sector rarely asks out loud. How safe are drivers, really, in those moments when, far from home, they try alone to fix a seemingly minor fault?
