Bubanj Potok: Tow Truck Driver Killed While Loading a Car

A tow truck driver was killed on Sunday, November 1, on Mokrolusko Hill near the Bubanj Potok interchange, in the direction of Belgrade. According to early reports, he was struck while loading a car onto his trailer. His name, initials and age have not been released.

The crash happened around 8:40 a.m., Kurir reports. Traffic toward Belgrade was halted during the on-site investigation and the removal of the wrecked vehicles, and queues built up at the entrance to the city. Police and the competent prosecutor’s office carried out the investigation, and the circumstances of the crash and any criminal liability are still being established.

What is known about how the crash happened?

Sources agree on the basics:

• the tow truck driver died at the scene
• the crash is suspected to have occurred while a car was being loaded onto the trailer
• another vehicle hit him
• several vehicles were involved

Kurir gives a more detailed picture: besides the tow truck with a car on its trailer, two more cars were involved, and the second one struck the first. The paper says the first car hit at high speed, citing an unnamed source:

Then a car hit him at full speed, and then another car hit that car. The man, sadly, died on the spot, and an ambulance crew treated an injured person.

Vojvodjanski reporter also writes that the vehicle hit at high speed, adding that the cars in the collision were completely crushed. The speed and cause of the crash, though, still have to be established by police and prosecutors.

The number of injured differs between outlets. Kurir writes about one injured person treated by the ambulance crew. Telegraf, Mondo, Novosti and the SD portal do not mention any injured. In the sources reviewed, there is no official statement from police or prosecutors.

What do eyewitnesses and the driver’s colleagues write?

Kurir quotes comments from social media. One eyewitness described the bend where the crash happened as a black spot. One driver wrote that the speed limit on that stretch is 80 kilometers per hour. That is his claim, and we found no official confirmation of the limit in the sources reviewed. The same comment reads:

Everyone who passes here every day knows the speed limit is 80, and people race through here so much it is unbelievable, especially in this bend, it is so treacherous when it rains, it just throws you out of the bend. That bend is one of the worst ones and it should be logical that a driver senses the danger by himself, even without a speed limit.

A colleague of the dead driver wrote on social media that the man died while helping someone else:

It is sad that my colleague went to help someone and died at his job… It could have been me instead of him… I have worn my teeth down saying that speed never did anyone any good on the road, and still people fly and race.

The authors of these comments have not been named, so they cannot be treated as confirmed.

What is still unknown?

It has not been made public who was driving the vehicles that struck the tow truck driver, or how fast they were going. There is also no confirmation that any of the drivers involved in the collision has been arrested or questioned. The SD portal reported on Sunday that there was no official information on when traffic toward Belgrade would return to normal.