The truck that crashed near a gas station in the village of Radomirtsi was moving at excessive speed, both instantaneous and average. On that ramp, the heavy truck was recorded traveling at a speed of 86 km/h where the permitted speed is 70 km/h, and the average speed in the accident section was 69 km/h with a limit of 50 km/h. On the day of the incident, speeding in the range of 10-15 km/h above the limit was also detected in different sections.
This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadzhov, who personally attended the thematic inspection of the carrier company, carried out by the EA “Automobile Administration.”
"The truck was not overloaded, but an uneven distribution of the load was found - on the rear axle, there were about 430 kilograms more on the left than on the right. This may have contributed to the loss of control, but the investigators will have the final say," he clarified.
The driver has 14 citations and 12 tickets for violations in the last 10 years, which is an indicator of systemic undisciplined behavior on the road.
“The main task of the inspectors from EA ‘Automobile Administration’ is to establish whether the trucks in the company are operated with so-called double cards, i.e., different drivers using one and the same tachograph card, which is usually done to hide violations of driving and rest times,” explained Karadzhov.
He specified that the check will not conclude within the day but will grow into a complex inspection, as the company has over 470 transport vehicles. A detailed analysis of the information from the last month for each truck and driver will be carried out. Data from digital cards, routes, and information from the toll system are being checked to determine with certainty whether there are cases of driving with two cards, without observing mandatory rest periods and working hours.
“From now on, this type of inspection, by cross-referencing data from the systems of different state bodies, will become standard practice. In cases of repeated violations, licenses will be revoked. If this specific company is found to be in violation, its license will be revoked,” Minister Karadzhov stated categorically.
He added that at the moment there are no indications of a shield over the company: “So far, no one has called me. The company cooperated, seven people from the team came on a day off, opened the office, and provided full assistance.”
