French bus driver arrested after fatal motorway crash to appear in court

Following Sunday’s deadly bus crash in which two people were killed and five critically injured, the driver has been arrested and will appear in court on Friday in Belgium.

The 35-year-old French driver of the Blablacar coach has been arrested by the investigating judge after testing positive for drugs, the Antwerp public prosecutor told Belga.

The public prosecutor had requested the arrest of the man after his drug test results came back positive. The suspect was already known in France for drug-related offences.

On Sunday afternoon, the bus deviated from its lane and crashed into a barrier and overturned, resulting in the E19 motorway from Antwerp to Breda being blocked near Schoten.

The Antwerp public prosecutor's office said in a statement that 30 passengers, aged between 16 and 39, were in the bus, whch was travelling from Paris to Amsterdam. There were 17 French, three Americans, two Germans, two Colombians, two Mexicans, two Canadians, an Italian and a Croatian. A man from Colombia and a teenager from France were killed.

(VIV)

^{© BELGA PHOTO JONAS ROOSENS}