Five dead in Dâmbovița after unlicensed 20-year-old driver hits pedestrians on DN61

The crash

In the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, near midnight, a 20-year-old man lost control of his car on national road DN61 near the village of Grozăvești, in the Corbii Mari commune of Dâmbovița county. According to witnesses cited by Stirile ProTV, the driver was returning from a party with his passenger and attempted to overtake another vehicle when he lost control of the steering wheel, entered the oncoming lane, and struck three pedestrians who were walking along the shoulder of the roadway. The car then overturned and left the road.

All five people involved died at the scene. The three pedestrians were a 25-year-old man, a young woman whose age was reported as 24 by Mediafax and 25 by Stirile ProTV, and a 49-year-old man. Stirile ProTV identified the 25-year-old man and the young woman as a married couple, and the 49-year-old man as the woman's father. The driver was 20 years old. His passenger's age was reported as 23 by Mediafax and 24 by Stirile ProTV. No one survived the impact.

Police investigation

Officers arrived at the scene to find all five persons already deceased. Comisar-Șef Viorel Polexe of IPJ Dâmbovița described the sequence of events to Stirile ProTV.

He was traveling from the direction of Găești to Corbii Mari on DN61, at which point he lost control of the steering wheel and entered the oncoming lane, where he struck three persons who were moving along the shoulder of the roadway. Subsequently the vehicle overturned. As a result of the traffic accident, there were five victims, all dying at the scene.

Police checks revealed that the 20-year-old driver did not hold a valid driving license for any category of vehicle. Officers opened a criminal case against him on two counts: culpable homicide and driving a vehicle without a license. Forensic medical examiners were tasked with determining whether the driver was under the influence of alcohol or prohibited substances at the time of the crash.

Emergency response and victim count

Multiple ambulance, extrication, and police teams were dispatched to the scene. According to adevarul.ro, firefighters arrived to find five victims: two presented injuries incompatible with life and were declared dead at the scene, while three others were found unconscious and were later pronounced dead despite medical intervention. G4Media reported that the victim count was initially believed to be three before being updated to five, and that the rescue operation was declared "in dynamic" status as teams continued working at the site.

A witness at the scene described the aftermath to Stirile ProTV.

A tragedy, a tragedy, what you see is what I saw. I lost myself, I took a bottle of water to go, there was no one I could go to with the water bottle.

Authorities had not released information about the exact cause of the vehicle leaving the roadway as of the initial reporting. The investigation remained ongoing.