Two persons killed, six injured after train accident near Sofia

published on 1/16/25 8:55 AM

Photo: BTA

Two freight trains, moving on the same track between the Svetovrachene and Kremikovtsi railway stations near Sofia, caused the death of two people, as another six were taken to hospital with injuries. One of the injured persons is in a life-threatening condition.

UPDATED Freight trains collide head-on near Sofia, two people are killed

“Most likely, a mistake was made in the organization of the traffic,” commented the director of the Sofia Police Directorate, Chief Commissioner Lyubomir Nikolov. Asked who directed the trains onto one track, he replied: “I assume that the responsible persons are at the Bulgarian Railways.”

“The main assumption is that the system either did not work, or it may have been damaged, and as a result, I do not see how a train driver would go out at a red signal without being told that he could go out,” Prof. Simeon Ananiev, an expert in the field of railway transport, told the Bulgarian National Radio.

One train, which is owned by BDZ-Freight Transport, was carrying scrap metal to Serbia, and the second train, owned by the private carrier PIMK, was traveling in the direction of Burgas, and had a load of containers. According to the director of the private company Kalina Kiskinova, their train was moving on a green signal, while the BDZ train should not have been moving against it.

After the accident, it became clear that the Caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev had dismissed the Deputy Minister of Transport Biser Minchev, whose portfolio is railway transport. The Minister of Transport and Communications Krasimira Stoyanova is insisting that the General Director of the National Company “Railway Infrastructure” Stoyan Stoyanov and the manager of “BDZ-Freight Transport” Hristiyan Krastev also file their resignations.

There is no radiation in the area of the incident, the mayor of the Kremikovtsi district Liliya Donkova told Nova TV.

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Two persons killed, six injured after train accident near Sofia

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