On the afternoon of October 2, two passenger cars collided on the August Deglava Bridge in Riga. One of the cars flipped several times upon impact and ended up on its roof. The driver trapped inside was helped out by passing people, reports the TV3 program "Degpunktā."
The accident occurred around 12:30. After the collision between a Ford and a Toyota, almost the entire roadway in the direction of Plavnieki was blocked.
The red Toyota sustained the most serious damage. After several flips, the car ended up on its roof, and the driver was trapped inside. Seeing what happened, two men passing by stopped and rushed to help him.
"He was conscious and wanted to get out by himself. I told him: it’s better not to move, so nothing happens. He mostly got out on his own; I helped a little," said Pavel, one of the witnesses.
According to him, the car doors were deformed after the accident, so they had to be bent to free the driver.
Witnesses noticed blood on the victim's hands, but he had no other visible injuries. However, the man's behavior raised concerns.
"I asked him if he was okay, if we needed to call an ambulance. At one point, he couldn’t understand what I was saying at all," said another witness, Janis.
The Toyota driver was handed over to the medics.
The driver of the gray Ford was less injured and refused medical examination. He told "Degpunktā" that he was driving in his lane and did not understand where the second car came from.
"It hit me on the side. I started to brake; I had almost stopped. Then it pushed me, I jerked the steering wheel, and there were cars coming towards me — we barely avoided a collision," claimed the Ford driver.
According to him, the impact was so strong that in the first few seconds he could not understand what had happened.
"It was a terrible hit. I couldn’t understand anything at all. I thought — did a bomb explode or what?" the man said.
Inside the Ford was a refrigerator that the driver had picked up from repairs and was planning to take to Malpils. As a result of the collision, the refrigerator shattered the car's rear window.
At the scene of the accident, another version of what happened was voiced. According to it, the elderly driver, while attempting to change to the right lane, may not have noticed the car moving there.
However, the Ford driver categorically disagrees with this and sticks to his version of events.
The exact circumstances and the culprit of the collision are yet to be determined by the police.
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