Four young people died on Thursday night when an Opel and a BMW collided head-on on the road between Pleven and the village of Yasen, prosecutors in Pleven said. The alert about the crash came at around 10.55pm.
Prosecutors said the Opel, driven by a 20-year-old, was travelling from Pleven towards Yasen when it crossed into the oncoming lane and hit the BMW. The BMW's 18-year-old driver and its 21-year-old front passenger died. In the Opel, a 20-year-old woman in the front right seat and a 20-year-old man in the back seat died.
The Opel driver was taken with injuries to the Dr Georgi Stranski hospital in Pleven. The hospital said he is in the neurosurgery clinic and his condition is stable.
The regional prosecutor's office has opened pre-trial proceedings. The investigation began with an inspection of the scene, which is not yet finished, prosecution spokeswoman Diyana Ilieva-Stoyanova said. Latinka Svetozarova, a Bulgarian National Radio correspondent in Pleven, also received confirmation of what happened.
After the crash, Nikolay Popov wrote about it on Facebook. He lost his daughter Siyana in a crash with a heavy truck. He said the four who died are children, because to their parents and loved ones they will always be children. Popov described the loss as four broken lives and four families in mourning.
He also said the road between Pleven and Yasen is winding, broken and full of potholes, and that on such a road high speed can be a death sentence.
Popov said a young woman sent him a photo after the crash. It shows the speedometer of another Opel at more than 200 km/h. He said the person who posted the images shared them on social media and seems proud of them. The make of the car does not matter, Popov added, but the coincidence brings certain associations to mind.
"Going 220 km/h does not make you heroes." Popov called such behaviour shameful, ugly and disgusting. He said drivers who go faster than 220 km/h and film themselves are not modern, not racers and not heroes, but look stupid, irresponsible and pitiful.
Popov asked what these drivers are trying to prove, and to whom: that they can floor the pedal and put themselves and others at risk, or that they are irresponsible in front of all of Bulgaria. The most frightening thing, he said, is that some still take pride in reckless driving despite so many funerals and dead children.
His call: "Stop this madness! Stop turning Bulgarian roads into cemeteries!" Filming your speed for social media does not make anyone more interesting, Popov wrote, and it can turn you into a killer, and then it will be too late.