site.btaPoor Road Markings Might Also Be Reason for Nov.23 Bus Crash, Bulgarian Investigator Says

Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - Based on expert opinions, a decision will be taken whether poor road markings might also be a reason for the November 23 deadly bus crash on the Struma Motorway, said Mladen Petrov of Bulgaria's National Investigation Service at a news conference in Skopje, held jointly with the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Republic of North Macedonia, Ljubomir Joveski. Petrov noted he cannot commit to a specific period within which the investigation will be completed.

The bus, taking a group of tourists back home from Istanbul to Skopje, crashed and caught fire on the Struma Motorway some 40 km southwest of Sofia shortly after 2:00 a.m. on November 23. Forty-five persons on board, including the two drivers and all but seven passengers, most of them nationals of the Republic of North Macedonia, were killed in the accident. The seven survivors were rushed to an emergency hospital in Sofia and are currently in a stable condition. Two of them have already returned to North Macedonia.

Joveski told the news conference that they have handed to the Bulgarian prosecution service the DNA samples, recordings of eight witness testimonies, information on the case over the bus carrier's license and all the documentation of the Interior Ministry about the bus. On Sunday, two experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine will go to Sofia to speed up the identification of the victims, he said. "We are convinced of the Bulgarian prosecutors' professionalism and that this case will be fully clarified," he also said.

Deputy District Prosecutor of Pernik (Western Bulgaria) Bisser Mihaylov, who also took part in the news conference, said the bodies of the victims are expected to be released for transportation to North Macedonia by the end of next week.

The Bulgarian investigators said that this is not the first time they are working professionally with their colleagues from the Republic of North Macedonia, and the current investigation is yet another example.

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Caretaker Regional Development and Public Works Minister Violeta Komitova Saturday told Bulgarian National Television, as quoted by her Ministry, that the section where the bus crashed is neither a motorway nor a high-speed road, because due to incomplete land expropriation procedures, it is yet to receive the final document deeming it fit for use. The speed limit was initially 90 km/h but for some reason in 2013 it was increased to 120 km/h, she noted.

Two private companies were contracted in April 2021 to renew the road markings but their work has not been completed, Komitova also said. The guardrail on the site of the accident, which some experts believe might be a reason for the crash, meets the requirements in force at the time the construction project was made, in 2002.

/DS/