All state authorities have been monitoring indifferently, for years, the illegal business of unregulated transport
Photo: “Otzvuk”
A boy from the village of Gyovren, Devin region at the age of 14 is placed in a hospital in life-threatening condition and a woman from Sofia has a broken pelvis after a pickup truck rolled over in the “Valchi Kamak” locality, 1650 meters altitude in the Rhodopes. A joint investigation by the regional newspaper “Otzvuk” and “Pro Veritas” has fund that the accident occurred during one of the unregulated tourist round trips towards the peak made with high-pass cars owned by “Green Valley” Tourist Association. Its chairman is Velizar Shanov – senior expert at the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Smolyan and Deputy Chairman of the Devin Municipal Council.
On Saturday, June 15, Mustafa Ustov, hired by “Green Valley” Tourist Association, loaded two families from Sofia into the cargo body of a Mitsubishi L-200 pickup truck and set off on the steep dirt mountain road.
In the front seat, his 14-year-old friend Janer sat next to him. Shortly before the peak, the 18-year-old driver lost control, the pickup truck went back and rolled over 2-3 times. The tourists – the two families Shutovi and Yakimovi from the capital Sofia threw out of the car and along with them – the child from the front seat.
Dangerous transport without control
The boy was literally smashed by the jeep. After an alert to 112, the arrived emergency medical team transported him to the Smolyan hospital. Doctors found that the boy had a torn spleen, 14 ribs cracked and a pierced lung, as well as multiple fractures on the body and the thoracic vertebrae. With a broken pelvis and fracture of the left clavicle, the 44-year-old Boryana from Sofia was admitted in the Hospital, her husband Detelin – with multiple heel injuries and their friend Anton – with a chest injury. After examination at the Smolen Hospital, the tourists from Sofia were transported by ambulance to “Pirogov” in Sofia. And a life-saving operation was performed on the boy, in which his spleen was removed.
Janner was placed in the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care with life-threatening, in artificial breathing and placed in artificial coma. After consultation with Prof. Chavdar Stefanov from “St. George” Hospital on Thursday, Janner was transported to the Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Clinic at the University Hospital in Plovdiv.
The rollover truck is owned by Velizar Shanov – Senior Expert at the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Smolyan, Deputy Chairman of the Devin Municipal Council and Chairman of the “”Green Valley“” Tourist Association – village of Gyovren.
Photo: “Otzvuk”
For several years already, the association has been engaged in transportation of tourists to the locality of “Valchi Kamak”, where the Association has also built two panoramic sites for observation of the surrounding area. The “Mitsubishi” truck with registration number CM9893AT is one of several high-pass cars of Shanov and the “Green Valley” Tourist Association.
The prosecutor‘s office and the police are acting after the fact
After the accident, an on-site inspection was conducted by a task force on duty at the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior – Devin, said District Prosecutor Zdravko Deliev. The driver was detained for 24 hours, his testimony was taken. His test for alcohol is negative. “The jeep was found to be touring on behalf of the “Green Valley” Touris Association. As far as they have reported to me, the company has a permit from the Forestry. The driver also has a contract with the “Green Valley” Tourist Association, signed by its Chairman, Velizar Shanov. I requested that all documents related to the activity be presented,” Prosecutor Deliev said.
Photo: Echo
However, Velizar Shanov denies that he or the company he represents has been engaged in unregulated transport for a fee. “This boy (Mustafa – note of the author) is my neighbor and friend. I have complete confidence in him, a very gentle boy, and at other times I gave him the jeep to do his job in the village as well. He is an authorized driver of the car and very well knows it. So he asked me and I handed him the car,” said Shanov, who was asked for comment on the phone.” Mustafa Ustov was a school leaver this year and has been a driver for several months. He has recently caused a road accident in the area of the Smolen village Stoykite, for which he has been issued a criminal decree.
NRA and GAI with widely closed eyes
Our information is that the cars – 7-8 in number, by which the tourists are transported, have neither civil liability nor have passed technical inspections, said the lawyer Zhivko Chepishev from the Initiative Committee “For Devin”. We have no information that the terrain on which the panoramic sites are built has been given in accordance to a proper legal order, he added. Access to them is limited by a barrier, and tourists are forced to pay BGN 10 “entry” fee, added the lawyer Chepishev, who is a former District Attorney of Devin. And the off-road tours to the localities of “Valchi Kamak” and “Orlovo Oko” are in principle undocumented and cost BGN 80-100.
Photo: “Otzvuk”
We also filed an application for access to public information to find out how the ramp was built, whether it is legal, whether it was secured, but it was not provided to us by the Mayor of Devin Municipality Krasimir Daskalov. Two months before the accident, the lawyer Zhivko Chepishev also sent signals to Main Directorate for Combating Organide Crime, State Agency for National Security and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for mismanagement by officials in the municipal administration. A check by the Chief Directorate “National Police” has been recently conducted.
“There are really a lot of people who have guest houses and they make tours from their house. Plus, the jeep is a personal property and anyone can get on and go to walk wherever they want. Maybe, there is a gap in the legislature,” Velizar Shanov commented before “Pro Veritas”. Is it really so? The jeeps were used for public transport against payment, which is subject to control by GAI, the transport is performed by merchants holding a certificate of registration and a permit issued by the Mayor of the Municipality. There is no official information whether NRA and GAI have carried out inspections of the unauthorized transportation to “Valchi Kamak”, “Orlovo Oko” and other localities in the Rhodopes.
Unlike Rhodopes Mountains, in the summer of 2018, NRA and GAI officials sanctioned and take-off the registration plates of jeeps performing similar operations on the Southern Black Sea coast, and due to lack of necessary licenses, the vehicles were stopped immediately.
