Unlicensed bus, 46 dead, seven survivors: a tragedy that still no one can explain

An investigation was launched to find out the causes of the car accident, as a result of which 46 people (including 12 children) died in Bulgaria in the early hours of Tuesday. It remains to be seen what led to the accident. “Human error of the driver or technical malfunction of the vehicle” are the initial hypotheses put forward by the head of the Bulgarian investigative service Borislav Sarafov.

Authorities say the car turned off the highway and drove 50 meters away from the side safety barrier. But it is unclear whether the fire that destroyed the bus occurred before or after the accident. There were no more vehicles in the accident. It happened at 2 a.m. (0 a.m. on mainland Portugal) near Bosnec, south of Sofia, ”explained Commissioner Nikolai Nikolov, in charge of the rescue operations, on the air of the public broadcaster BNT.

North Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said DNA tests are being carried out to identify victims. AP News… “Victim identification has already begun. An autopsy, as well as DNA identification, because for some victims this is the only way to identify them. ” Osmani added: “Two things are important to us: first, identifying the victims, and second, finding out the cause of the accident.”

The bus was owned by Besa Trans, a travel company that organizes travel in Europe, and had a Macedonian license plate. Blagoj Botsvarski, Minister of Transport of North Macedonia, said the authorities had initiated a procedure to revoke the Besa Trans transport license. The company has four licensed buses for international passenger transport, but with regard to the bus involved in the accident, “the ministry did not have a record that it had a license.”

The road section is degraded

The Bulgarian authorities are analyzing the condition of the respective highway, where accidents are often reported. The mayor of Pernik (a nearby town) confirmed to a local newspaper that the site is in disrepair and that people are often injured.

Bulgarian roads are actually considered to be among the deadliest in the European Union. Bulgaria had the second highest road fatality rate in the EU in 2019, according to the European Commission, with 89 deaths per million people.

This accident, which killed 46 people, was the deadliest in the history of Bulgaria.

Almost all of the passengers were from Albania.

The bus carried mainly tourists. He left Istanbul, Turkey, and was heading for Skopje, North Macedonia.

According to the Albanian Foreign Minister, most of the 52 passengers were Albanians from North Macedonia. Interim Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev said that among the victims were a citizen of Serbia and a citizen of Belgium. According to Agence France-Presse, only two of the bus drivers were from North Macedonia.

Only seven passengers survived: two women and five men. They managed to escape by breaking the windows. Then they were taken to the capital’s hospital. In accordance with ReutersAccording to a source in the hospital, the survivors are in stable condition, with severe burns, one of them has a leg injury.

“The survivors are traumatized, they have lost loved ones and children. They were rescued through the windows, ”said Maya Argirova, head of the burn department of the hospital where the wounded were taken.

As the head of the Bulgarian Investigative Service Borislav Sarafov told reporters, both drivers died as a result of the accident, so neither of them was able to open the doors.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev spoke to one of the survivors, who told him that the passengers were asleep when they were awakened by the sound of an explosion. The question is whether this explosion came from the bus itself or was caused by a collision with a road safety barrier.