One of the most frightening traffic in recent years was noted on Tuesday afternoon (15.4.2025) when a truck was nailed to two cars in toll Polymylou to Egnatia sending to death a couple of Greeks who had come from Switzerland for Easter.
The pictures transmitted by the car accident on Egnatia Road was shocking. The dense veil of fog that had covered the mountainous area, the smoke emerging from the burnt vehicles, the trimmed canopy of the homonymous tolls, were reminiscent of a bombarded landscape.
Although the preliminary investigation of the authorities responsible for the circumstances of the accident is ongoing, it is certain that a truck driving a 38-year-old Ukrainian moving to the toll’s e-Pass strip fell on two front cars, including his rented car, his unfortunate car. The 72 -year -old and his 69 -year -old wife were burned by the fire that broke out alive as they were trapped in the burning vehicle. On the contrary, the driver of the front car managed to get out in time and escaped with slight injuries, while a toll employee had the same fate.
Testimonies from the spot reported that the alien driver of the truck carrying glass jars moved at high speed.
These testimonies are included in the case file formed by the Veria Traffic Department and were evaluated by the Kozani Public Prosecutor before whom the 38 -year -old led a 24 -hour day later, on Wednesday. Pre -trial the defendant living in Bulgaria allegedly claimed thatI a car cut off the way When he went to pass the tolls and in order to avoid it he “cut” the steering wheel to the left. His criminal treatment will be decided on Friday, when he apologizes to the Kozani investigator, since the prosecution he was filed is a felony.
Investigations, however, continue and the case file is expected to be enriched next time with newer data that will be included and included in it, such as videos from toll security cameras.
Where are the carcasses due
Failure to keep security distance, human fatigue, distraction, aggressive driving, and environmental conditions, are the main causes of multiple conflicts (carbol) on the streets, as he notes in the RES – EIA, the Diploma Mechanical Engineer. Commenting on the deadly accident in Polymylo, he considers himself self -evident that the driver of the truck, for an unknown reason, did not react In time.
“This results from the severity of the damage to the vehicles involved that indicates much faster than the proper point and visibility conditions that had to be at a maximum of 20 km/h. That is, in a single incident the environment (weather), the human reaction, the increased mass and the speed of the truck have contributed to the creation of the carnivorous, “says Glavopoulos, while noting that there is rarely in the carbs, but there are rarely a unique cause.
He stresses that although in recent years there has been an attempt to improve marking in conditions that favor similar conflicts, there must be even better and more frequent signage, special lighting and “smart” systems in the hazardous points of the roads, such as fog sensors, such as fertile sensors, before for accidents in front of traffic.
‘Driving is not a video’
But only these, as he adds, are not enough, since one of the major issues in the same is the need to raise awareness and training of drivers around road safety, especially the younger generation “characterized by the distraction and which is that is. anchored on the mobile».
It explains a simple example by wanting to show the danger of using mobile phone during driving: “If we read and send a message to the mobile at 6 seconds distracting, this time is moving at a speed of 120 km. 85 meters of full distraction from the road, “says Mr. Glavopoulos and sends the message that driving is not a video.
Memories from the 2014 deadly carcass
The recent accident in Polymylo woke up memories of the deadly carbine that took place in October 2014, a few kilometers away, on the Egnatia Road highway, near the Veria junction. The tragic account then was 6 dead and 31 injured. Dalika, driven by a 40 -year -old Romanian, heading to Thessaloniki, fell at high speed on dozens of vehicles which were immobilized due to work done by PPC, with drivers awaiting the “green light” to continue their course.
The 40 -year -old driver was sentenced to a three -member three -member Criminal Court next year to a 29.5 -year jail sentence for homicide by negligence and bodily harm. In his apology, he had cited brake damage, and claimed that the warning signage was incomplete.
The macabre list of multi -car accidents
On the 908km -long modern highway of Egnatia Road – extending from Igoumenitsa to the Evros gardens – Squadron was about to play bad games for some drivers by playing human tragedies. To April 15, 2023 A 46 -year -old car driver, the father of two children, returning from Komotini to Alexandroupolis, lost his life in a frontal collision with a car moving to the same traffic stream and transported illegally immigrants from Evros. In addition to the 46 -year -old killed other five people – The trafficker and four transferred immigrants, while six more immigrants were injured. As it turned out, the trafficker entered the traffic stream, in an attempt to avoid police officers who signaled him to stop realizing the obviously overloaded vehicle.
Deadly traffic accident with the involvement of immigrants who choose to Egnatia Road to move from Evros to the inland are unfortunately included in the police reports. One of the most murderously unfolded in August 5, 2020 near Alexandroupolis, when car in which immigrants were carried outThe found to be stolen hit the concrete base under construction of tolls, consistently to lose their lives seven passengers and injure five others.
Six dead immigrantsof which three children, as well as ten injured, were the report of a traffic accident in the June 8, 2018 In Nea Karvali, again with the involvement of a smoker driving a small van and which fell on the rocks after the two -wheeled dividing wall passed.
Members of two families from Northern Macedonia who returned to their home country after a trip to Turkey, where they were invited to a wedding ceremony, were the victims of the multi -day rolling stock. July 16, 2012 On the same road at the Asprovalta junction, outside Thessaloniki. The sad report: four dead, including a 6 -year -old baby girl, and five injured, including three minors. Everyone was on a mini-bass that was overthrown when it crashed into a mound by the road.
In the tunnels of Polymylos the thread of life was violently cut for Three young people (two women and one man), 25 to 28 years old, in February 5, 2015when the car in which they were on board collided with another vehicle and then fell on a truck. Among the victims was a 28 -year -old for which information was reported then that a few hours before the accident he had married a political marriage.
Holidaymakers from the Czech Republic who were vacationing in Greece were the three dead and eight injured car accident that happened to September 14, 2011 On Egnatia Road, outside Grevena. Everyone was on a mini-bas and participated in a groups of tourists who vacationed in Vrasna, Thessaloniki and returned from an excursion to Meteora.
Near Grevena lost their lives in December 14, 2015 three people (50, 72 and 73 years old) When the vehicle on which they were coming out of the road, it fell into slopes and was overthrown. Two of them were tossed by the car and found instant deaths, while the third person was seriously injured in the hospital where he succumbed shortly afterwards.
In the dense fog that prevailed in her morning January 22, 2013 In Imathia, two “carbohydrates” of vehicles were reported on Egnatia Road (Platanum height), with the involvement of 18 and 19 vehicles respectively, and one dead and 26 wounded.
The criminal treatment of ‘dangerous driving’
Back in Tuesday’s crash on the toll of Polymylos and the 38 -year -old Ukrainian driver, who was prosecuted for dangerous driving with a deadly result, which is a felony (he also faces the offenses of homicide and bodily harm). As the criminologist Theodoros Karagiannis explains by July 2019, the challenge of death in a car accident, when the driver of the vehicle had negligent deaths, was punished for homicide by negligently with a threatening sentence of up to 5 years in prison.
“Other behaviors that were often causing the accident, such as driving under the influence of alcohol, were punished by misdemeanor provisions provided for in the coke. So even if during dangerous driving e.g. Particularly high speed, the perpetrator predicted as possible that he could cause a fatal accident, since he “did not accept it” as a result, that is, hoping or wishes that death would not occur, low -height penalties were foreseen and their execution was usually suspended. “
However, criminal treatment has changed since July 2019 when the provision of no. 290A PK with title ‘Dangerous driving’. “Since, then, one leads in ‘dangerous terms’ eg. Having used drugs or alcohol, as long as it leads to current or vehicle technically insecure, etc., depending on the risk or result it caused, high penalties are imposed, ”Mr Karagiannis points out, indicating indicative:
“If an accident was caused under the above circumstances and death was killed, the perpetrator is punished by imprisonment of at least 10 years and if it caused a large number of people unjustified, it can be punished by life imprisonment, and even if it was simply a risk of foreign things, it can be a risk of foreign things.”
This provision – as the criminologist points out – has received 4 consecutive modifications over the last 5 years, adding various elements, and expanding illegal behaviors that can be subject to it. The most significant change is that of Law 5039/2023, in which it was added as a way of committing the offense and the high speed exceeding 20 to 60 km/h (as the case may be) of the relevant speed limit.