Tomorrow marks 10 years since the late President Guido de Marco’s state visit to Bulgaria was interrupted by a horrific car crash involving his motorcade. Patrick Cooke looks back on the tragic day.
The Presidential motorcade was travelling blithely towards Sofia on March 14, 2001.
President Guido de Marco was talking to his wife on his mobile phone, while other members of the delegation were chatting among themselves and gazing at the nondescript landscape of the Bulgarian hinterland.
Then, suddenly there was carnage.
As they passed through Dupritsa, about 50 km from Sofia, a trailer truck travelling in the opposite direction apparently lost control and collided with the late Prof. de Marco’s official car at high speed before smashing into six other vehicles, killing one person and injuring 10, seven seriously.
The President and then Education Minister Louis Galea escaped unharmed, although it was reported they were visibly shaken.
A Bulgarian official in the President’s car was hospitalised.
“This was a very serious accident,” Prof. de Marco was quoted as saying afterwards.
“We just saw the truck come on to us. Our car took evasive action only to find ourselves crashing into another car.
“The accident somewhat escalated and several other cars were involved. It all happened so fast... All I can say is that God wanted us here”.
The car carrying the three journalists who had accompanied the President on the trip was the only one that was not hit, since it was at the back of the motorcade.
Among the journalists in the car was The Sunday Times deputy editor, Herman Grech, who was then a reporter for The Times.
“We were in the middle of nowhere and in seconds the road looked like the aftermath of a battlefield,” he says, recalling the horrific scene he witnessed.
Official photographer Lino Arrigo Azzopardi was the only Maltese person to be injured in the incident.
Mr Arrigo Azzopardi remained semi-conscious and was talking incoherently immediately after the crash, but his injuries turned out to be worse than they first appeared.
He told The Sunday Times he has no recollection of the accident.
“The last thing I remember was visiting Rila Monastery,” he said, referring to the historic monastery the delegation had toured earlier that day.
“I cannot recollect the details people tell me about the crash. Even when I see footage and newspaper cuttings from the day, nothing comes back.
But Mr Grech can still see the events clearly: “The engine of the car carrying Mr Arrigo Azzopardi was on fire and he was semi-conscious in his seat.
“The Bulgarian interpreter next to him had lost an eye and the driver’s bleeding head was resting on the steering wheel. I remember trying to jolt the driver to check if he was OK, before I realised he was dead.
“Mr Arrigo Azzopardi’s body shook like jelly as he was taken out of the car – little did we realise how close to death he was that day.
“The passenger of the trailer which caused the destruction went straight through the windscreen and his body was motionless in the street, but the Bulgarian authorities claimed only one person had died,” Mr Grech said.
Mr Arrigo Azzopardi was rushed to hospital and provisionally treated in Sofia before being flown back to Malta in an air ambulance arranged by his son, who was living in Switzerland.
At St Luke’s Hospital it was discovered that the impact had left him with multiple fractures from the neck to legs, broken ribs and, most seriously, a chest haemorrhage.
He said doctors gave him a 25 per cent chance of survival and he was put into an induced coma, spending six weeks in intensive care before eventually pulling through.
Four years later in Brussels, Mr Arrigo Azzopardi met Iliana Sarauleva, Prof. de Marco’s translator on the trip.
Ms Sarauleva had suffered terrible facial injuries which left her with severe disfigurement, and the effects of the accident on her helped Mr Arrigo Azzopardi put the crash into perspective.
“If that was me, perhaps I would wish I was dead. The crash was the worst part of my life, but I’m still here and I want to keep going. The support from my wife and family helped me recover,” he said.
Even now, 10 years on, Mr Arrigo Azzopardi suffers pain in his leg and spine that restricts his movement, but he continues to work as a photographer.
He said his main thoughts about the accident now were ones of sympathy for the Bulgarians who died and were injured.
“I feel very, very sorry for them; they were being of service to our President.”
There was some speculation in the Bulgarian press afterwards that the crash was premeditated; an attempt to embarrass the government three months before the elections in that country, although this was never proven.
Mr Grech recalls the Bulgarian authorities made it difficult for journalists to establish the facts.
“It was a nightmare to report the incident because the Bulgarian government clearly wanted to play down a very embarrassing incident,” he says.
Prof. de Marco decided to continue with the state visit to Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia following the crash, although he cancelled all receptions.
He organised a press conference in Malta upon his return in which he thanked all well-wishers and was quoted as saying: “It was not just a traffic accident, it was a terrible collision. It was like a battlefield.”
The driver of the truck was eventually tried and convicted for manslaughter.