The rescue teams got to the car that got stuck in a snowdrift the next day, when the two persons from inside the vehicle were already dead. The man and relatives of the couple called the 112 Service for multiple times and sought help, but the rescuers reached the two only after a passerby informed about the death of the two. The police opened an inquiry, while the Prosecutor’s Office started a criminal case to determine how the institutions interacted, IPN reports.
Minister of the Interior Adrian Efros presented the chronology of events in a news conference on Wednesday. The car got stuck in a snowdrift between the villages Florica and Coșcalia at about noon. In about two hours, a relative of the driver and another two persons went to the blocked car and established that they would be unable to pull the vehicle out themselves. The driver was urged to go to the village, but he said that he already called out a tractor from Coșcalia and would be soon towed away to continue his trip.
The first call to the 112 Service was made by the driver at 2:58 p.m. The man said that they got stuck and he was given the contact data of road workers. In about half an hour, the driver called a relative of his and asked that person to bring some warm clothes. In a period, the man and his wife tried to go to Florica, but the woman felt sick and they decided to stay in the car and wait for rescuers.
At 4:48 p.m, a team of the Căinari Inspectorate for Emergency Situations went to unblock the main road to Coșcalia, where a number of vehicles got stuck, including a minibus with passengers. But the car with the two persons inside was on a secondary road. As it was a slope, the snow was drifted and the car was covered with snow.
The driver called the 112 Service close to 5 p.m. informing that exhaust gas was entering the car. The operator told him that the incident response teams were unable to clear the road of snow and advised the two to walk away themselves. In that area, the layer of snow reached 2 meters in parts and the snow removal works were making slow headway.
At 5:54 p.m., the dispatcher’s office of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations was informed about the stuck car by the 112 Service. The task was entrusted to the Căinari rescuers. Meanwhile, the driver informed the 112 Service that his wife felt worse and they needed an ambulance. He said that they tried to walk away, but returned to the car as his wife could not walk. In the period, between 4 p.m. and 7 p/m., the man’s son-in-law called the 112 Service for six times, informing about the created situation.
The driver also talked to persons in charge of the National Emergency Medical Assistance Center, who told them that an ambulance could not reach them. He later made the fourth call to the 112 Service, informing that an ambulance could not get to them and asked to be towed away. The man told the operator that the pile of snow reached the car’s roof and he could open only one door.
After 11 p.m., the incident response teams towered away the cars that got stuck on the main road, but no one reached the car that was stuck on the secondary road. The two persons were discovered dead by a passerby on Monday morning.
The man and his wife were aged 63 and, respectively, 64.
