Romanian ambulance driver gets poaching accusation for accidentally hitting wild boar

The driver of an ambulance called on an emergency case in Mehedinti county, at Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria, accidentally hit a wild boar and was stopped by the Police for more than two hours, Digi24 reported, quoting local publication Observ Tot. A policeman allegedly accused him of poaching and levied a RON 870 (EUR 190) fine. Another ambulance had to be sent on the case, from 70 Km away. The incident took place after midnight, on the road between the villages Vatra and Gârla Mare. “The boar came speeding, I pushed the breaks as much as I could, and the car stopped. […] The boar died, I stopped, the moment I was looking to see what happened, the Border Police showed up next to me. […] I called 112, I let our supervisors know what had happened […] The policeman called us poachers, […] told us to leave the ambulance there, in the field, at night, and [asked] to go with him at Vânju Mare to get tested. […] He gave me a fine, RON 870, he said I didn’t adapt the speed to the road conditions,” the ambulance driver explained. The driver says he was in a rescue mission and had no intention of killing the boar. “I couldn't avoid it, I would have liked to avoid it so as not to break the ambulance,” the driver said. “The head of the police station asked us ‘Aren’t you involved in poaching with the ambulance?’ I told him I couldn’t believe what he was asking. How could we do such a thing? I have been working with the ambulance service for 14 years and this is the first time such a thing happens! It was the first boar we hit,” the ambulance nurse explained. editor@romania-insider.com