November 25 (BTA) - A total of 44 people died in the bus crash on Strouma Motorway on November 23, the head of Bulgaria's National Investigation Service, Borislav Sarafov, told a news briefing here on Thursday. A total of 44 bodies have been identified by the forensic examinations, he specified. Human error is the most likely cause for the crash, Sarafov also said.

On November 23, a bus crashed and caught fire on Strouma motorway near Sofia shortly after 2:00 am, killing all but seven of its passengers, most of them nationals of the Republic of North Macedonia. The bus was returning to Skopje from a tourist trip to Istanbul. The seven survivors were taken to an emergency hospital in Sofia and are in stable condition with no life-threatening injuries.

The Prosecutor General's Spokesperson, Siyka Mileva, said one of the survivors told the investigators that the survivors were eight. The investigators are still trying to find out if there is an eighth survivor, as only seven were taken to Sofia's Pirogov emergency hospital after the accident.

It is yet to be investigated whether there was a transfer of passengers from one bus to another, given that the tourist group was divided in four buses travelling together on their way back from Istanbul.

Autopsies showed that all the victims in the bus died of suffocation after inhaling smoke from the fire and not because of the crash itself, Sarafov told the briefing, explaining that soot particles were found inside the victims' airways.

Sarafov stressed that he guard rail on the motorway where the accident happened is dangerous and is among the main causes for the crash. He rejected the possibility that the bus crash could have been the result of a terrorist attack.

Two of the survivors were questioned right after the accident, as they were conscious, and another two are being questioned today, Sarafov said.

Lead investigator Marian Marinov told the media that there was no evidence of an explosion. The bus driver had tried to stop before hitting the guard rail, but it is unknown why he steered off course and went into the guard rail, in the first place. It was dark and it was drizzling, he said.

The front door of the bus flew out upon impact, after which a fire broke out and there was no way for the passengers to escape. Meanwhile, the door in the middle, where the passengers gathered, was blocked by another guard rail, Marinov added.

On Friday, a prosecutor and an investigator from Bulgaria will go to Skopje to get the DNA test results from the victim's relatives to identify the bodies. 

Mileva stressed that Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev has ordered the Supreme Administrative Prosecuton Office to inspect the road surface markings and traffic signs on motorways and first-class roads, together with non-governmental organizations and experts.

Bulgarian authorities have asked North Macedonia to provide all of the crashed bus's papers. It is yet to be investigated who is responsible for allowing the bus to enter Bulgaria. DS/KK

Source: Sofia