11 dead, dozens injured in motorway pileup

Eleven people died and dozens were injured on Tuesday in a mass pileup on a motorway in southeastern Bulgaria, whose roads rank as the most dangerous in the EU. Crashes in thick fog snared dozens of vehicles heading in both directions of the highway linking the capital Sofia to the Black Sea city of Burgas. An estimated 50 cars and trucks were involved in the accident near the city of Yambol, regional governor Georgi Chalakov told the BTA state news agency, as government officials rushed to the scene.

Images showed overturned and smashed cars and trucks mangled together, as well as burnt-out vehicles. “The toll at this point is 11 dead and 48 injured,” Prime Minister Rumen Radev told reporters. Radev was meeting EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who is on a visit to Bulgaria, but the prime minister cancelled his official events scheduled for later Tuesday.

The injured were transported to hospitals in nearby cities. The government dispatched two aircraft equipped with stretchers and medical teams. Bulgaria saw 71 road fatalities per million inhabitants in 2025, the highest rate in the European Union, according to European Commission figures. Victims blame the Balkan nation’s high number of traffic deaths on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and an inefficient justice system.

Stricter penalties Romanian Foreign Minister Dan Neculaescu said one Romanian was among the injured and expressed “deepest condolences” to the victims and their families in a post on X. European Council chief Antonio Costa also said on X he was “deeply saddened to learn of the tragic traffic accident in Bulgaria this morning”. A total of 456 people were killed in road traffic accidents in Bulgaria in 2025 — down five percent from the previous year and 27 percent lower than in 2019.

The EU in 2019 introduced a target to reduce road deaths and serious injuries by 50 percent by 2030. A European Commission report in October said that although the EU remains “one of the world’s safest regions for road travel”, the majority of member states were not yet on track to meet the safety target. The report said that just five of the EU’s 27 countries — including Bulgaria — were on track to meet the target.

However, “despite their progress since 2019, Bulgaria and Romania, alongside Croatia, continue to have the highest fatality rates in the EU when measuring deaths per million inhabitants”, the report said. In 2023, Bulgaria’s parliament adopted stricter penalties for anyone found to be driving under the influence of drugs. The cars of accused drivers are now impounded until the trial, even when the suspects have no previous criminal record.

Bulgaria’s busy road traffic due to its position as a gateway to the EU is one of the main factors behind the high accident rate, according to experts. But Bulgaria’s status as the EU’s poorest member state also plays a role, with around half of the cars registered more than 20 years old.