Thirty-eight people lost their lives and dozens more were wounded Saturday after a passenger bus slammed into a bus belonging to Syria’s Interior Ministry along the Damascus–Deir Ezzor highway, according to a Syrian Health Ministry official who spoke with The Media Line.
Dr. Najib al-Naasan, who serves as director of the Referral, Ambulance and Emergency Department at Syria’s Health Ministry, confirmed the death toll had climbed to 38. He added that numerous others sustained injuries, with several victims in critical condition, as emergency responders continued pulling survivors from the wreckage and rushing the wounded to hospitals.
The crash took place on an isolated desert section of the highway that connects Damascus to the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Both buses suffered severe damage in the impact, forcing rescue teams to spend hours freeing passengers who were trapped inside the mangled vehicles and clearing the roadway.
A wide range of emergency personnel responded to the scene, including medical teams, civil defense workers, and various government agencies. Because the nearest hospital sits roughly 65 kilometers — about 40 miles — from the crash site, the Defense Ministry sent military helicopters to fly the most critically injured victims to medical care.
As of now, authorities have not announced what caused the collision. An official investigation has been opened to determine whether mechanical problems, road conditions, or driver error contributed to the crash. Efforts to identify all of the victims were still ongoing as recovery operations continued.
The Damascus–Deir Ezzor highway is a major artery in Syria, linking the nation’s capital with its eastern provinces. The route handles regular passenger bus traffic along with commercial freight hauling, and it cuts through long stretches of sparsely populated desert — an area where delayed emergency response is a known challenge due to the distance between medical facilities.
Deadly highway accidents remain a persistent problem across Syria, especially in remote regions where advanced medical care is difficult to access quickly. Saturday’s crash triggered a large-scale response from health authorities, civil defense units, and the military, making it one of the deadliest road accidents the country has seen in recent years.
