Car overturns under bridge in Novopazarska Banja
A passenger car ran off the road, flipped over and came to rest on its roof beneath a bridge. Two people were injured and taken to hospital in Novi Pazar. The cause has not yet been established.
- A passenger car ran off the road and ended up on its roof beneath a bridge in Novopazarska Banja on July 15.
- Two people were injured. Both were taken to the general hospital in Novi Pazar.
- Unofficially, one person suffered a serious arm injury, while the extent of the other person's injuries is not yet known.
- The driver lost control of the vehicle for reasons that have not yet been established. No official findings on the cause have been released.
Two people were injured in a traffic accident in Novopazarska Banja on Wednesday, July 15. A passenger car ran off the road, flipped over and came to rest on its roof beneath a bridge.
Emergency medical crews went to the scene and gave the injured first aid. Both were then taken to the general hospital in Novi Pazar for further tests and treatment. Unofficially, one person suffered a serious arm injury. The extent of the other person’s injuries is not known at this stage.
The driver lost control of the vehicle for reasons that have not yet been established. For now, that is all that can be said about the cause without guesswork.
The cause is still being established
The phrase “for reasons not yet established” is not an empty formula in the first hours after a crash. It means exactly what it says: that the answer does not exist yet, not that it is being withheld.
A great deal remains unknown at this stage. The speed the vehicle was travelling at is not known, nor whether there were any technical faults, nor the driver’s medical and physical condition. It is also not known whether there was an obstacle on the road, oil, or another road user who forced the driver into a sudden reaction.
All of this is established by the on-site investigation and then, if needed, by forensic examination. Until then, any claim about the cause remains speculation. In single-vehicle crashes, with no witnesses to the moment the car left the road, the reconstruction usually rests on marks on the carriageway and on the damage to the vehicle. That is a job for expert examiners, not for the first report.
One point often gets lost in coverage of this kind: the fact that a vehicle ended up on its roof says nothing in itself about speed. Rolling over is as much a matter of the geometry of the ground as of kinetics.
Why does a car end up on its roof after leaving the road?
The answer is less dramatic than it looks. While the wheels are on asphalt, the vehicle slides. The moment they move onto the verge, grass or soft ground, lateral resistance rises sharply. A wheel digs in, and the mass of the vehicle keeps moving over that pivot point. The result is a rollover.
When there is also a drop beside the road, an embankment, a ditch or the space under a bridge, the vehicle gains a fall as well. That is why cars relatively often come to rest on their roof right beside the road, and rarely on the carriageway itself.
This explanation is general and describes the mechanics of running off the road, not the specific case in Novopazarska Banja. What exactly happened there will be established by the competent authorities.
One fact here is not a statistic. There were two people in the car that ended up on its roof, and both survived. In a crash of this type that is not a given, and it usually depends on whether seat belts were fastened and how well the passenger compartment held up.
Summer months on regional roads bring heavier traffic, longer drives and more fatigue behind the wheel. None of that has been established as the cause of this crash. But it is the context in which it happened.
When did you last leave your seat belt unfastened because the drive was “short and on the flat”?
