Contents
- The accident happened in another country. «We operate at the level of a language barrier»
- A disaster involving many people is always a challenge. It’s easy to make a mistake
- The injuries of the victims in such cases are often very serious. This extends the time it takes to identify the bodies
- Driver information is particularly important for investigating the cause of the accident
The lifeguard Karol Bączkowski points out the long waiting for the identification of the victims of the coach accident of Polish pilgrims traveling to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The disaster occurred on Saturday, August 6, early in the morning on a highway in Croatia. As a result of the accident, 13 people were killed and 31 were injured.
- According to the rescuer, the procedure of identifying the victims of the disaster is extended by the fact that the accident happened abroad. The obstacle is the language barrier
- Determining the names of the victims is complicated by the fact that there are many victims. In addition, their bodies are often crushed or dismembered. It is difficult to identify them, because the passenger list is not always up-to-date and their documents are destroyed
- The driver’s blood test is essential to determine the causes of the accident. The reasons for losing control of a vehicle can range from falling asleep or fainting to a cardiovascular incident such as a heart attack. It can also be a momentary distraction or being blinded by the sun
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
The accident happened in another country. «We operate at the level of a language barrier»
As the disaster happened outside the country, in Croatia, there is a language barrier and national differences. – Nobody knows these people, and in a hurry, names and letters can be twisted. Meanwhile, no one wants to kill someone and make a mistake in identification. You cannot tell family members that their loved one is dead if you do not have 100 percent. certainty – explains Karol Bączkowski.
A disaster involving many people is always a challenge. It’s easy to make a mistake
As the lifeguard reminds, many people travel in one bus, so it is easy to confuse the names, and as a result of the accident, the luggage and personal belongings of travelers, including their documents, shift. Sometimes things that allow identification will burn or get damaged. Determining who is who is also not always easy, because the passenger list is sometimes outdated. Sometimes there are fewer passengers on the bus, because someone got off, but sometimes there are more people on the list than officially registered for the journey. This makes it difficult to determine who was on board the vehicle at the time of the accident.
The injuries of the victims in such cases are often very serious. This extends the time it takes to identify the bodies
As the expert explains, the victims are often crushed, access to them is difficult because they are jammed in the wreckage of a vehicle. Bodies can be dismembered and difficult to identify. – Finding names is one thing, but it is also necessary to collect the bodies of the victims. Often, the injured are unconscious, while in the case of conscious people there is a language barrier in contact with emergency services. In order to pass information on to families, it is important to ascertain the identity of the victims. This is done using special marks and other information from the family and DNA tests – explains Bączkowski.
The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Zagreb also extensively wrote about the reasons why the identification procedure takes so long.
Driver information is particularly important for investigating the cause of the accident
However, not everything can be determined if the driver of the vehicle dies in the crash. In the event of the death of drivers, toxicological tests are performed: the blood is tested for the presence of alcohol, drugs and medications. This is important for insurance, but not only that.
It is impossible to determine whether the driver, for example, fell asleep at the wheel or fainted, unless there are witnesses who saw it. However, an autopsy may show a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or a drop in blood sugar. Dehydration can also show up in blood tests.
But the cause of losing control of the coach could even be drugs that took effect after a while and put the driver to sleep. Sometimes it is to blame for a momentary distraction, because, for example, the driver’s cell phone has fallen, or the sharp sun that blinded him.
Regardless of what contributed to the accident, an investigation is always carried out to find out its causes and rule out further disasters, if possible. Sometimes determining the reasons allows to change the law, e.g. drivers’ breaks and their rest periods are increased.
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