Two people were charred to death and four were injured in a tragic traffic accident in northern Greece when a lorry crashed on two vehicles and into a toll booth in Polymylos on Egnatia highway on Holy Tuesday.
At the time of the accident, dense fog prevailed in the area between the towns of Kozani and Veria, in western Macedonia, and visibility was almost zero.
Three hours after the accident, thousands of motorists are still trapped on the highway on the direction to Kozani, forming kilometer-long queues.
According to media, the accident took place at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon at Polymylos tolls, almost 2 km away from Veria.
A truck with Ukrainian license plates crashed into two cars and eventually at high speed also into one of Polymylos toll booths.
The truck was moving under conditions of low visibility due to dense fog, crashed violently into the two cars before ending up in a safety barrier and ultimately in the Polymylos toll booth, where it burst into flames.
Two people in one of the cars were charred to death. Three others have been pulled from the involved vehicles involved injured and taken to nearby hospitals. Their lives are not at risk, local media reported.
The booth where the truck crashed was empty, but a young woman working in the next booth was slightly injured.
The truck driver survived the accident and was arrested on the spot. It is not known whether he was injured or not and media reported that he was not under the influence of alcohol.
According to latest information by ANT1 TV the accident occurred when one car tried to pass the toll on the e-pass lane. The mechanism was blocked and so the driver pulled a bit back to try again. The driver of the car behind it had not lowered speed and crashed on it when it was then crashed by the truck which burst into flames.
the two dead are the driver and the co-passenger of the car in the middle, while the two women in the first vehicle had quick reflexes and jumped off their vehicle thus saving their lives.
Authorities investigate the circumstances of the accident and are to evaluate footage from the toll cameras, while they will also check into the safety measures the traffic police ought to have taken due to the dense fog on the highway.
Next to police and firefighters in the area,, also an ambulance has been placed on standby to intervene in case of need.
sources: grtimes.gr, kozanimedia.gr & others