Driver Killed as Car Crashes Into Canal Near Ruma

A driver died near Ruma after the car he was driving went off the road and burned. The crash happened on Friday, August 28, around 7 p.m., on a road near an asphalt plant on the outskirts of Ruma.

According to information available so far, no other vehicle was involved in the crash. The car left the roadway on its own, without colliding with another vehicle, and ended up in a canal beside the road.

The vehicle caught fire as it went into the canal and burned completely. Photos from the scene that surfaced shortly after the crash show only the wreck in the canal, barely recognizable after the fire. The driver was trapped inside the vehicle and died there. Canals along the road in that part of Srem mostly serve to drain the surrounding farmland and are a common feature along local roads.

The first reports about the crash were based on unofficial information, and the number and identity of the victims had still not been officially confirmed by the following morning.

The identity of the person killed was not known in the first hours after the crash. The Interior Ministry typically releases the identity of traffic accident victims only after notifying the next of kin, a process that usually takes some time.

All three emergency services that respond to serious traffic accidents rushed to the scene: police, firefighters and paramedics. Firefighters put out the burning vehicle, while Interior Ministry officers secured the scene until the on scene investigation team arrived. An ambulance crew responds to every reported traffic accident involving a fatality, even though in such cases doctors on the scene can usually only confirm death. The scene of such crashes is typically kept cordoned off with tape until the investigation team finishes its work, so that evidence relevant to the case can be preserved.

Traffic on that stretch of road was completely halted right after the crash. It later resumed with difficulty, and drivers were advised to exercise extra caution until the situation on the ground returned to normal. The closure also affected vehicles that normally travel to and from the asphalt plant, and the disruption lasted until crews finished the most urgent work at the scene.

The on scene investigation was led by Interior Ministry officers. In the first hours after the crash, the cause of the car leaving the road had not been established. In cases where no other vehicle is involved, the investigation team first checks the condition of the road surface and any braking marks, and then, if necessary, orders an inspection of the vehicle itself. Only once those findings are in does the prosecution decide whether to open a pre-criminal proceeding. There are no suspects in the case so far, since according to the information available the crash was not the result of a collision with another vehicle. Findings from a vehicle inspection into the cause of a crash like this usually arrive within a few weeks, after which the prosecution decides on the next steps in the pre-criminal proceeding.

The first information about the crash near Ruma appeared on the Instagram account 192_rs, which Informer cited in its own reporting. Only after that did other media outlets confirm the crash, while an official statement from the Interior Ministry about the event itself had not been published in the first hours.

Srpske novine is following the further course of the investigation and will publish the identity of the victim and the cause of the crash near Ruma as soon as the relevant authorities officially confirm them. Until then, the crash near the asphalt plant remains one of the cases the Interior Ministry’s investigation team is still reviewing before the report is entered into the record.