Disasters · Trakia motorway crashYambol motorway pileup: 11 dead after toll correction, 86 vehicles reportedAired November 10, 2026 at 5:23 PM UTCWatchTranscript0:00Yambol motorway pileup,11 dead after toll correction,86 vehicles0:05reported.0:07Two motorway pile-ups killed eleven people and left wreckage across both Karegways.0:11Bulgaria's health ministry has corrected the death toll.0:14While hospitals across three cities have treated the injured, the later reported0:18vehicle count has grown to eighty-six.0:20Investigators still have to determine how collisions spread across both sides of the0:23road.0:24Ten people died at the scene and one died in hospital.0:27The health ministry's clarification replaces the preliminary total of twelve that0:31circulated during the day.0:32It also changes the earlier accounts of where the victims died.0:35The crashes struck the Trakia motorway, also called the A1, near the Zimnitsa0:39Junction outside Yambol.0:40This is southeastern Bulgaria, on the main road connecting Sofia with Burgess on the0:44Black Sea.0:45The site was about seventy-five kilometers west of Burgess.0:48Two separate stretches of motorway became crash scenes on opposite Karyagways.0:52The pile-ups were at kilometer markers two hundred eighty nine and two hundred0:55ninety-four.0:56An early account placed the incident at around seven in the morning on November0:59tenth.1:00Yambol Governor Georgi Chalikov initially estimated about fifty cars and trucks were1:04involved.1:05The later reported total is eighty six cars and lorries across the two pile-ups.1:09That gives a much wider picture of the disaster than the first estimate.1:13Cars and trucks lay crushed, overturned, or pushed off to the side, with vehicles1:17piled across six lanes.1:19Firefighters and rescue crews had to reach people inside damaged vehicles while1:22police and ambulance teams worked along the motorway.1:25The Interior Ministry's early explanation began with a bus hitting a truck and1:28triggering a chain reaction.1:30Ministry official Liubimir Nikolov identified thick fog as the likely cause.1:34His assessment remains provisional while investigators work through the sequence.1:38One estimate put visibility as low as ten meters.1:41That figure hasn't been confirmed as a measurement.1:44Investigators still need to connect the events on the two Kariegways and determine1:47what caused each pile up.1:49The preliminary figures also place deaths in different locations.1:53One breakdown put eleven at the scene and one in hospital.1:56Another put ten at the scene and two during transport.1:58The ministry's correction replaces both.2:01Officials haven't explained precisely how the counting went wrong.2:03Sliven had twenty-seven hospitalized patients.2:06Yambel had twelve and Burgess had seven.2:08Those figures total forty six in the health ministry's eleven thirty snapshot.2:12Health Minister Katya Evkova also said forty-six people had been taken to medical2:16facilities and warned that the situation was changing.2:19A separate interior ministry figure put the number of injured people taken to2:22hospital at fifty.2:23The health figure was forty, six taken for treatment.2:26Those counts haven't been reconciled, and they can't be added together as separate2:29groups of patients.2:30Other injury snapshots put the number at forty, eight or fifty, one.2:34Different reporting times and definitions may account for some of the variation.2:38The forty-six hospitalized patients are a dated snapshot, so that figure alone2:41doesn't show how many people remained in hospital later.2:44People were still trapped in cars when Yambol Police Chief Inspector Todor Mishnev2:48described the rescue effort.2:49He said rescuing them came first, with investigative work to follow.2:53His statement described that earlier stage of the emergency.2:56Government aircraft were sent to Burgess to stand by for possible transfers of2:59injured people to Sofia.3:01Spartan military transport aircraft were also put on standby.3:04Another description identified two aircraft carrying medical teams and stretcher3:08equipment.3:09The air response prepared crews and equipment for patients who might need treatment3:12elsewhere.3:13Nobody has said how many patients, if any, were actually flown.3:17The aircraft deployments alone don't tell us whether those transfers happened.3:20Prime Minister Ruman Radev cancelled later engagements in Varna and called off a3:24cabinet meeting.3:25He described the crash as a tragedy and planned to visit the scene.3:29Wednesday, November11 , was announced as a day of mourning.3:33European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she would shorten her visit3:36to Bulgaria.3:37She offered condolences and paid respects to the rescue teams.3:41She had been visiting the country and meeting Redev when the disaster changed their3:44schedules.3:45Bulgaria recorded seventy one road deaths per minute Illyan residents in two3:49thousand and twenty-five compared with an EU average of forty-three.3:52That was the union's highest national rate.3:54Road victims have blamed reckless driving, neglected infrastructure, and an3:58inefficient justice system for the wider safety problem.4:01Those national figures described the year before these crashes.4:04Investigators still have to establish what happened near Zimnitsa.4:07Fog remains the early likely explanation, and the full sequence across both4:11Karigways is unresolved.4:13The survivor's condition and treatment, along with a reconciled injury count, remain4:17unfinished parts of the emergency.Story timelineHeyDex
