“I’ve been traumatized all my life”: testimony of a partner of a driver killed by a manhole cover

She was by her husband’s side during the tragedy. Maria Kodja spoke out days after the death of truck driver Georg Dibil, who was killed by throwing a manhole cover off a motorway bridge in Belgium. Head Ladsday NewsBelgian Dutch-language daily, Friday.

“It looked like an explosion.”

“Suddenly I saw something fall on the glass, it happened very quickly. I heard a noise like an explosion. I looked near me and Gheorghe was no longer reacting,” says the 39-year-old woman.

The events took place during the night from Friday to Saturday on the highway between Liège and Namur in Belgium. Five youths, two minors and three teenagers, are suspected of throwing the manhole cover off the motorway bridge. The latter pierced the windshield of the truck driving down, killing its driver, a Romanian national, Giorke, instantly.

Maria, who was by his side, tackled the heavy goods vehicle without leaving the road. “I thought I was going to die,” she testifies.

“They destroyed me too”

Both were to get married in August. “We have to prepare for our wedding, but I’m organizing Georg’s funeral,” laments Maria Kodja. How will I live without him? I feel like I have nothing. » Also, devastated: “I have a feeling that I will join him soon, I don’t want to leave him alone. »

She vented her anger on the five boys on the bridge. “They destroyed me too. I’ve been in shock for the rest of my life,” the thirty-year-old breathes. The latter are suspected of operating under the influence of nitrous oxide, nicknamed “laughing gas” for its psychoactive effects.