Fatal crash near Ikšķile: eyewitness describes what happened

A serious three-vehicle crash occurred on Thursday, September 3, around 1:25 p.m. on the Daugavpils highway between Ikšķile and Ogre, killing one person and injuring four others, Latvia's State Police confirmed to the LETA news agency.

The collision involved a truck, a Volkswagen Tiguan and a Toyota. The Toyota sustained the worst damage — rescuers had to cut off its roof to free the people trapped inside. According to initial police information, the person killed was a passenger in one of the cars.

Following the crash, the road section between Ikšķile and Ogre was completely closed to traffic for several hours.

Eyewitness account

Speaking to TV3's programme "Degpunktā", an eyewitness named Toms said he had been driving behind the truck at the time of the crash and rushed to help the injured along with other drivers who stopped at the scene. He described seeing a cloud of smoke and said he and others pulled people from one of the cars who had bruised legs and difficulty breathing.

Toms later learned a possible cause of the crash: he said the driver of a silver-coloured car admitted himself that he had fallen asleep at the wheel, veering into the oncoming lane and clipping the truck. The truck then swerved into the opposite lane due to momentum, colliding with a red car as well.

The truck driver reportedly confirmed a similar account of events, saying everything happened in an instant and that after the impact, he was no longer able to control the truck.