Golija crash kills teen; policeman, helper detained

A court in Novi Pazar has ordered up to 30 days’ detention for two young men over a traffic accident on Mount Golija in which a 15-year-old boy was killed. The court granted the request filed by prosecutors, the judiciary said.

Detention was ordered for police officer V. K. (20), suspected of having been the driver, and for S. J. (19). The first suspect faces a charge of a serious offence against public traffic safety. The second is suspected of aiding an offender after the commission of a criminal act.

The crash happened on July 7, in the early morning hours, on a stretch of road across Golija. According to the investigation, the car ran off the roadway at one point and overturned. Several people were in the vehicle, among them two minors.

One of them, a 15-year-old boy from Novi Pazar, was thrown from the car as it rolled over. He died of his injuries. The other minor suffered serious injuries and remains in hospital. Because of their age, the identities of the boys are not being published.

Why was the driver detained?

The central part of the suspicion concerns alcohol. According to investigators, V. K. was driving under the influence at the time of the crash. That circumstance is one reason the act is being treated as a serious offence against public traffic safety, rather than ordinary endangerment of traffic.

For such an offence, the law prescribes harsher penalties when the result is the death of one or more people. At this stage, the court does not establish guilt. It weighs whether grounds for detention exist: the risk of influencing witnesses, tampering with evidence, or repeating the act. Up to 30 days is the maximum for the first term and may, under the law, be extended further during the investigation.

The role of the second suspect, S. J., relates to what happened after the crash. He is not charged with the accident itself, but with helping the offender after the act. What exactly that assistance involved will be the subject of the prosecutorial inquiry.

It should be stressed that both are, at this stage, suspects. Guilt is established at trial and has not been finally determined. Until then, the presumption of innocence applies.

What comes next in the investigation?

The next step is gathering evidence. Prosecutors will, as a rule, order expert analysis: an examination of traces at the scene, a technical inspection of the vehicle, and a determination of the driver’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash. The final classification of the offence will depend on those findings.

The case also stands out because the suspected driver is a member of the police. That does not affect the criminal proceedings themselves, which follow the same rules as for any citizen, but it raises the question of a possible internal review within the Interior Ministry. There is no official information for now about the officer’s employment status.

For the family of the boy who died, however, those are secondary matters. The fact remains that a 15-year-old lost his life on a mountain road, in a crash that is suspected to have been preventable. How much will the investigation manage to reveal about what exactly happened that night on Golija?