Bulgarian Regional Development Minister Violeta Komitova said that the investigators still haven’t determined the exact cause of the fire that engulfed the Besa bus that crashed a week ago, with the loss of 45 lives.

The accident happened on the Sofia – Dupnica highway, and Komitova confirmed that the fire was the main cause of the heavy death toll, considering that the damage from the actual impact of the bus into a highway fence appears light. A number of speculations were shared in the press, from the claim that the bus was carrying smuggled cheap diesel from Turkey, to the allegations that it was carrying chemicals used to produce heroin.

Komitova said that the road should not be classified as a highway, and that the 120 kilometers per hour limit at this section should be reduced down to 90. The highway has a poorly placed rest-stop on the right hand side, and the driver apparently followed a lane toward the rest-stop, then tried to return to the road, and hit the rest-stop fence.