Overview
- The crashes occurred Tuesday on the A1 Trakia motorway in southeastern Bulgaria and left 11 people dead and 48 injured, the toll given by Prime Minister Rumen Radew.
- Officials say one pile-up began when a bus collided with a truck in heavy fog, with reduced visibility and wet roads reported as likely proximate causes by interior ministry sources.
- Local authorities and photos from the scene show wreckage across multiple lanes with estimates of involved vehicles ranging from about 50 to more than 70.
- Rescue teams freed people trapped in vehicles, regional hospitals in Sliven, Yambol and Burgas received many victims, and government or military aircraft were used to transfer the most seriously hurt to Sofia.
- The A1 was closed in both directions while police diverted traffic and opened forensic and traffic investigations, a disaster that highlights Bulgaria’s high per-capita road fatality rate and longstanding road-safety challenges.