Cyclist, 30, Seriously Hurt in One of Five Belgrade Crashes
Five traffic crashes hit Belgrade overnight, the worst of them in Zemun, where a 30 year old cyclist was struck at 1:33 a.m. Ambulance crews responded to 105 calls.
Five traffic crashes were recorded in Belgrade overnight between August 15 and 16, and the worst of them happened in Zemun. On Prvomajska Street, near number 63, a 30 year old cyclist was struck at 1:33 a.m.
The man suffered serious injuries and was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Center. None of the other four crashes logged by crews that night involved anyone seriously hurt, according to the Belgrade Emergency Medical Services.
What Is Known About the Zemun Crash
Officials released the time, location and age of the injured man. The circumstances of the crash were not disclosed, nor was any information about the vehicle involved. Emergency Medical Services also did not say what condition the man was in after being admitted to the Emergency Center.
The overnight figures were released to Tanjug.
How Many Times Did Paramedics Respond?
Crews went out 105 times in total. Of that number, 20 calls were in public places, meaning outside homes and apartments, on the street, in transit or in the open.
Several calls also involved people found intoxicated, who were taken for detoxification to the toxicology department of the Military Medical Academy.
Why Residents Called for Help
Most calls came in for health problems, not injuries. According to the Emergency Medical Services review, crews were called out most often for:
- people with low blood pressure complaining of weakness
- patients with chronic cardiovascular conditions
- patients with respiratory complaints
- asthma patients
- psychiatric patients
Low blood pressure and weakness were, per that review, the most common reason for calls, followed by cardiac and pulmonary patients, groups whose condition can worsen without any outside trigger.
Those calls rarely make the news, yet they account for most of the workload. Of the 105 calls, only five were traffic crashes.
The Wider Picture
Five crashes in one night in Belgrade are part of a far larger daily total across the country. Srpske Novine previously reported on a 24 hour national overview that recorded 106 traffic crashes and 71 injured people across Serbia.
The comparison says nothing about causes, only about the scale of the workload. One night in one city produced one serious injury and four crashes without major consequences, alongside 105 ambulance callouts.
Cyclists form a category of their own in that count. They have no car body, no seatbelt and no airbag, so a collision with a vehicle typically ends in injury rather than just property damage. That is why the crash on Prvomajska Street is classified as serious, even though it involved a single injured person.
What Happens Next
As of this writing, police had issued no statement on the Zemun crash. The on site investigation and any determination of fault are not part of the Emergency Medical Services report, which covers the number of callouts, location and type of injuries, not who caused the crash.
The identity of the driver and the vehicle also remain open questions. Until police release the findings of their investigation, nothing can be claimed about which of those involved, if any, is said to have made a mistake.
What has been confirmed so far comes down to a few facts: one injured cyclist, age 30, one transfer to the Emergency Center, five traffic crashes in Belgrade in a single night, and 105 ambulance callouts, 20 of them in public places.
