One witness put visibility at roughly 30 metres when the first vehicles collided on Tuesday morning. Within minutes, dozens more had ploughed into each other on both sides of the Trakia motorway near Yambol in south-eastern Bulgaria. Later in the day, health minister Katya Ivkova put the death toll at twelve: ten people were killed at the scene and two more died after reaching hospital.
Investigators are dealing with two distinct pile-ups, separated by only a few kilometres near Zimnitsa: traffic bound for the coastal city of Burgas was hit in one, Sofia-bound traffic in the other. The regional governor of Sliven counted more than 70 cars, vans and lorries involved and said he had never witnessed anything comparable. The interior ministry says a bus hitting a lorry probably triggered the sequence. Road authorities blamed thick fog, a wet surface and drivers going too fast for the conditions.
Rescuers faced a grim and slow task. Sections of crash barrier had to be removed and metal cut away to reach people trapped in their seats, some of them inside tanker lorries, and the fog initially kept helicopters on the ground. Around 50 casualties were spread across hospitals in Yambol, Sliven and Burgas, three of them in a critical state; one hospital in Sliven suspended planned surgery to cope. The government put its own plane and military transport aircraft on standby to move the worst cases to Sofia.
Rumen Radev, the prime minister, spoke of a tragedy and dropped the rest of his schedule. Ursula von der Leyen, who was visiting Bulgaria, cut her trip short and offered condolences.
The stretch between Zimnitsa and Kabile is expected to stay shut for some time, with traffic sent on detours via Karnobat and Sliven. Bulgaria’s roads have long been considered the deadliest in the European Union.
