A Polish lorry driver has drowned after his truck veered off the road and landed in the River Leie. The driver had lost control of his vehicle after it had been involved in a collision with a car driven by a pregnant woman.
The woman had been distracted by a 6-year-old child that was crying on the back seat. She turned round to see what was wrong with the child and while doing swerved off course, hitting the truck. The lorry driver lost control of his vehicle and smashed through the crash barrier and into the River Leie. The driver of the lorry, a 34-year-old Polish man drowned in the river.
The accident happened at around 6.10pm on Tuesday evening in Wielsbeke (West Flanders). The lorry was driving from Wielsbeke to Waregem (West Flanders). The car driver is a 30-year-old woman from Ingelmunster.
Tom Janssens of the West Flanders public prosecutor's office department told VRT News that "She had her 6-year-old child on the back seat of the car. Suddenly the child started crying. She turned to the child, and this distracted her from the road. She deviated from her lane and drove into the left-hand front wheel of the truck coming in the opposite direction. The truck became out of control, and it drove through the crash barriers, into the Leie."
Three bystanders jumped into the river to try to free the driver from his cab. However, they were unsuccessful. It was only over an hour and a half after the accident that divers were able to retrieve the driver’s body.