Eight people died in five serious crashes around Burgas and on the Trakia motorway towards Burgas between 30 September and 10 October. Police are running five separate investigations.

This report follows our earlier story about the crash in the Aytos Pass, near the Zetyovo junction, on 4 October. Traffic was stopped, and witnesses said a motorcyclist had died.

Two crashes at the Zetyovo junction alone, between 30 September and 4 October, killed four people. Cars and heavy lorries pass through the Aytos Pass every day.

On 30 September a Hyundai Ioniq and a Scania heavy truck with a trailer collided head-on on the road between Aytos and Ruen. Three young people from Sofia died: the 23-year-old driver, his 26-year-old passenger and her 22-year-old brother. The regional police directorate (ODMVR) in Burgas said the car crossed into the oncoming lane and hit the truck. Early findings point to no fault on the part of the truck driver.

Four days later, on 4 October, a 57-year-old motorcyclist from the village of Karageorgievo, Aytos municipality, died near the same junction. He hit a car and died at the scene.

The 66-year-old driver of a Ford Transit minibus died in Burgas on 9 October. He first hit an electricity pole and then a concrete fence. Why he left the road has yet to be established.

Two people died on 10 October on the road between Burgas and Aytos, at the Sadievo junction, at km 478.700. They were a 30-year-old woman from Burgas and a 43-year-old man from Aytos. The man is known to Neftochimik fans. Police say he was driving a Volkswagen Golf that crossed into the oncoming lane and hit the woman's car head-on. The stretch of road is straight. The investigation will establish why the car left its lane: a wrong manoeuvre, distraction, a health problem or another cause.

On 3 October a Turkish-registered lorry ploughed into cars that had stopped because of an accident at km 267 of the Trakia motorway, near Yambol. A 26-year-old man from Plovdiv died, and two residents of Karnobat were injured. A medical helicopter was sent to the scene, and traffic towards Burgas was blocked for hours.

On 12 October the Court of Appeal in Burgas ordered the charged Turkish driver to be held in custody. It overturned the lighter measure imposed by the first-instance court.