The tragic accident occurred on the Egnatia Odos national motorway near the village of Messi, at the intersection between Veria and Kouloura, at 10:20 am on Sunday morning. It was caused when a truck with Romanian license plates crashed into a line of cars brought to a standstill by roadworks.
The 39-year-old foreign truck driver was arrested right away and in statements after his arrest, he said that his truck ploughed into at least 30 cars because his brakes had failed.
Speaking to Greece's state news agency, Central Macedonia Fire Brigade commander Chyssanthos Athanassopoulos said that more than 30 cars were involved in the collision, which happened on the Veria-Thessaloniki lane, among them three large trucks. The cars were smashed together into a single mass and some of them even caught fire.
Thankfully, the response by emergency service units was immediate. Greek authorities rushed to the scene to extricate people trapped in the wreckage. Four people pulled out dead at the site of the accident, including two Greek women aged 53, a 42-year-old Greek man and a Bulgarian national of unknown age. The fifth victim, a man, who was seriously injured, died on the operating table at a Thessaloniki hospital later on Sunday evening.
In total some than 30 people with injuries were rushed to local hospitals, either in ambulances or in private cars.
The saddest news of all is that two infants (aged six months and 1.5 years), were reported to be in grave condition.
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