Tractor Driver, 77, Killed Near Mladenovac
A 77 year old tractor driver was killed on Thursday in Kovacevac near Mladenovac after his vehicle left the road. Prosecutors have ordered an autopsy.
A fatal traffic accident took place on Thursday morning, September 10, in the village of Kovacevac in the Mladenovac municipality. The victim was Dusan Ivancevic, a 77 year old local resident. The Blic news portal does not name him in its report, referring to him only by the initials D. I. (77).
The tractor left the road on a sharp bend. From that point, however, media accounts diverge on two separate details: where the vehicle ended up, and when the body was found.
Tree or ditch, sources disagree
Telegraf, whose report was picked up by Informer and nova.rs, says that after leaving the road the tractor slammed into a tree beside the carriageway, and that the driver died of his injuries at the scene before an ambulance crew arrived.
Blic, whose report was republished by the Naslovi.net portal, gives a different version of events. According to that outlet, the man lost control of the tractor and the vehicle went off the road straight into a ditch beside the carriageway, where it was later found.
Blic also adds a detail the other outlets do not mention. Citing unofficial information, the paper reports that the victim’s body may have remained at the scene for several hours before it was discovered and reported to the authorities. Telegraf, Informer and nova.rs make no mention of that possibility.
On one point, though, every source agrees: the driver died at the scene, before medical help had a chance to reach him.
Police and prosecutors carried out the on site investigation
Emergency services were dispatched to the scene as soon as the accident was reported. Officers from the Mladenovac Police Station carried out the on site investigation, with the duty prosecutor from the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Mladenovac in attendance.
The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Mladenovac has ordered an autopsy of the victim’s body. The examination is meant to establish the exact time of death and which of the injuries proved fatal. Such examinations are a routine part of preliminary proceedings whenever the circumstances of a crash are not immediately clear, since it is not yet known whether the case is purely accidental.
The cause of the tractor leaving the road has not yet been established. The investigation is ongoing, and its outcome should also settle the central question on which the sources disagree, namely whether the vehicle struck a tree or ended up in a ditch.
News of the crash only reached the media the next morning
Although the accident happened on Thursday morning, the media only began reporting on it the following day. Informer published its report at 10:15 and nova.rs at 10:24, both on September 11, nearly a full twenty four hours after the crash itself.
The reason for that delay in public reporting is not known. One possible explanation lies precisely in the detail cited by Blic, namely that the victim’s body was not found right away and may have remained at the scene for hours before someone came across it and alerted police.
This newsroom has not previously reported on this accident. The investigation by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Mladenovac is ongoing, and its outcome, including the autopsy findings, is not yet known.
What is known, and what is still to be determined
Setting aside the dispute over exactly how the crash happened, media sources agree on the basic facts. The accident occurred in the village of Kovacevac, in the Mladenovac municipality, on Thursday morning, September 10. The victim was a 77 year old man, a resident of the village, who was driving a tractor at the time. Emergency services were dispatched to the scene, and the on site investigation was carried out with the duty prosecutor present.
What sources do not resolve is the exact mechanics of the crash, whether the tractor struck a tree beside the road or slid into a ditch, and whether the victim’s body was found immediately or remained at the scene for hours. The autopsy findings, still awaited by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Mladenovac, should answer both questions. Until then, the cause of the tractor leaving the road remains unknown, and the case is being treated as a fatal traffic accident, with no indication so far of any criminal element.
