site.btaUPDATED Continue the Change Co-chair Petkov Involved in Car Crash, Pauses Election Campaign

A car of the National Service for Protection (NSP), in which the co-chairman of Continue the Change (CC) Kiril Petkov was riding, crashed at the entrance to the village of Aksakovo at 5:30 pm, the party said on Facebook on Thursday.

The crash was caused by a car suddenly jumping out of a road without priority. A man and a woman in their 60s were riding in the vehicle. Police arrived immediately, CC said.

Later, the NSP reported that the driver of the other vehicle was seriously injured in the collision and subsequently died. The woman accompanying him is in hospital. Petkov and the driver of the NSP vehicle were not injured.

Later in the day, Petkov expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased driver in a post on Facebook.

Petkov said that he will pause his election campaign until he can do everything in his power to help those injured in the crash and their families.

Petkov said that he was riding in the back and was not injured, only had the “wind knocked out of him”. He pointed out that the first response team came very quickly to the scene, as well as the firefighters, who managed to very professionally cut open the car to remove the people inside.

The Sliven Military District Prosecution Office has initiated pre-trial proceedings on the case, the Military District Prosecutor Colonel Hristo Tinev told BTA on Thursday evening.