Kolari Crash: Truck Driver, 27, Drove High and Unlicensed
The driver of a freight truck, M. S., 27, from Jagodina, suspected in the deaths of a married couple near Kolari, tested positive for marijuana and never held a driver's license.
We have already reported on the crash on the Belgrade-Nis highway near the Kolari toll station, in which a married couple from the Subotica area died on September 21. The Interior Ministry’s field office in Smederevo released a new detail from the investigation today: the truck driver who caused the chain collision tested positive for marijuana and had never passed his driving test.
On the order of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Smederevo, the driver, identified as M. S., 27, of Jagodina, has been detained for up to 48 hours on suspicion of committing a serious offense against the safety of public traffic. Once the detention period ends, he will be brought before the prosecutor along with a criminal complaint.
The crash happened on September 21 at around 12:10 p.m., in a stretch of slowed traffic caused by roadworks on the Belgrade-Nis highway near Kolari. M. S., driving a Fiat truck, caught up to and struck a Mazda that was stopped in the queue ahead of him. The impact drove the Mazda into an ambulance that was also stationary in the same line of traffic.
The Mazda’s driver, 62, and his wife, also 62, both from the Subotica area, died from their injuries. Three other people suffered minor injuries: the ambulance driver, 40, the patient being transported in it, 66, and the truck’s passenger, 28.
What the test showed, and where the sources disagree
Police officers established that M. S. was driving the truck under the influence of marijuana, according to the Interior Ministry’s official statement, which Mondo and Telegraf both carried in the same form. The portal Hronika magazin, which also cites a statement from the Smederevo Police Directorate, reports that the driver was under the influence of alcohol. The Interior Ministry’s official statement, which points to marijuana, is the authoritative one.
What is undisputed across every source is that M. S. had never passed his driving test and was behind the wheel without a license.
The case has been transferred from the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Smederevo to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Smederevo, after it was established that the driver was under the influence of narcotics at the time of the crash.
