Eleven dead in Bulgaria’s two motorway pile-ups as toll is corrected

Eleven people died in the crashes on Tuesday, November 10, Bulgaria’s Health Ministry later clarified, correcting the preliminary toll of 12 that had circulated during the day. Ten died at the scene and one in hospital, according to the clarification reported by Bulgarian National Television, BNT.⁠15

The reported scale of the collisions moved in the opposite direction: an early estimate of about 50 vehicles gave way to accounts of 86 cars and lorries. Radio Bulgaria and BNT reported that larger total across the two pile-ups. The correction to the death toll does not make the disaster smaller; the later vehicle count shows how incomplete the first picture was.⁠8⁠18

The crashes struck the Trakia motorway, also designated the A1, near the Zimnitsa junction in southeastern Bulgaria. The road connects Sofia with Burgas on the Black Sea; the reported location was about 75 kilometres west of Burgas. Bulgarian reporting placed the two pile-ups on opposite carriageways at kilometre markers 289 and 294. An early account put the incident at around 7 a.m. local time.⁠1⁠2⁠19

The early official account began with a bus colliding with a truck and setting off a chain reaction. Interior Ministry official Lyubomir Nikolov identified thick fog as the likely cause. That is an initial assessment, not a completed finding—and it does not, by itself, explain the sequence of collisions on both sides of the motorway.⁠1⁠3

A reported estimate put visibility as low as ten metres. It should not be mistaken for a confirmed instrument measurement. Nor does the available evidence establish responsibility for either pile-up, or show that speed, road design, maintenance or another factor has been proved causal. Investigators still have to establish how the collisions developed.⁠22

Police, firefighters and paramedics were sent to the road. During the earlier rescue effort, Yambol police chief inspector Todor Mishinev told Nova TV that people were still trapped in their cars. His description captured the immediate difficulty: reaching occupants inside damaged vehicles came before reconstructing what had happened.⁠3

That statement describes the emergency when Mishinev spoke. It is not evidence that people remained trapped later in the day. The available reporting does not provide a verified final count of trapped occupants or completed extractions.

The clearest hospital breakdown is a dated one. The Health Ministry’s update describing conditions at 11:30 local time recorded 46 hospitalized patients: 27 in Sliven, 12 in Yambol and seven in Burgas. Health Minister Katya Ivkova also said 46 people had been transported to medical facilities, while warning that the situation was dynamic. Neither statement establishes how many people remained admitted later.⁠13⁠17

The injury figures have not been reconciled. In their November 10 reports, ABC News Australia carried an Interior Ministry figure of 50 injured people taken to hospital, while the Guardian reported the health minister’s figure of 46 transported for treatment. Those may reflect different reporting times or definitions, but the evidence does not settle the difference. They are not separate groups to be added together.⁠1⁠2

Other published snapshots varied again: Euronews reported 48 injured, while Radio Bulgaria reported 51. Those accounts reinforce the need for a reconciled casualty statement rather than a choice of whichever number appears largest. The official 11:30 hospital snapshot remains useful precisely because it says what was counted and when.⁠10⁠8⁠13

The earlier death-location accounts also need to be retired, not blended. ABC’s November 10 report put eleven deaths at the scene and one in hospital; Deutsche Welle’s report that day put ten at the scene and two during transport. Both carried a preliminary total of 12. The later Health Ministry clarification reported by BNT supersedes those breakdowns with ten at the scene and one in hospital. The available accounts do not explain precisely how the preliminary counting went wrong.⁠1⁠3⁠15

Authorities prepared an air-medical response as hospitals treated the casualties. BTA, citing the Government Information Service, reported that government aircraft were sent to Burgas to stand by for possible transfers to Sofia, with Spartan military transport aircraft also on standby. DW described two aircraft carrying medical teams and stretcher equipment. Deployment and readiness are established; the number of patients actually flown, if any, is not.⁠21⁠3

Prime Minister Rumen Radev cancelled later engagements in Varna and called off a cabinet meeting. He described the crash as a “tragedy” and planned to visit the scene. Wednesday, November 11, was announced as a day of mourning. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was visiting Bulgaria, said she would shorten her trip and offered condolences and respect to the rescue teams.⁠21⁠1

The disaster falls against a grim national road-safety record. DW, citing European Commission figures, reported that Bulgaria recorded 71 road deaths per million residents in 2025, the highest national rate in the European Union, against an EU average of 43. Road victims have blamed reckless driving, neglected infrastructure and an inefficient justice system for the wider toll. Those concerns warrant scrutiny, but they are not findings about Zimnitsa.⁠3

Two tasks now matter alongside the announced mourning: accounting accurately for the dead and injured, and establishing how both carriageways became mass-collision scenes. The first accounts have already changed materially. The investigation must be allowed to replace the early explanation with evidence—not merely repeat that there was fog.