A clear blue sky, on a ‘jet black day’. In Buggenhout, East Flanders, water splashes from Patricia Peeters’ backyard. Her ten-year-old daughter is playing with a friend in an inflatable pool. Peeters tries to make the day as normal as possible for her: “I am so relieved that it is not my child, that she is here at my house because she happened to have a study day.”
Peeters heard “a huge bang and a grinding sound” from the emergency brake of the train that came to a stop in front of her house just after eight o’clock in the morning after a collision with a school bus. The accident, at a railway crossing on line 53 – which connects Leuven with Schellebelle (Ghent), via Dendermonde and Mechelen – killed four people.
All four were on board the school bus: two children (aged 12 and 15), a supervisor (27) and the driver (49). The other five passengers, children aged 13 to 15 years old, from Bornem, Muizen and Beveren-Kruibeke-Zwijndrecht, are seriously injured in hospital. The school bus was headed to a special education campus. The train’s occupants were not injured.
“I immediately ran outside, saw debris on the track, a lifeless child on the side of the road, a child covered in blood,” says Peeters, upset. “And I heard children screaming for help in the overturned school bus.” Volunteer firefighters from the area quickly arrived on the scene; the local barracks are a stone’s throw from the railway crossing. Other emergency services followed “quickly”, according to Peeters.
‘Tragic disaster’
According to her, the impact is great. “It happened at a time when many children were cycling past on their way to school. That image…” She does not finish her sentence. Mayor Geert Hermans speaks of “a tragic disaster”. His Buggenhout, a rural municipality with about 15,000 inhabitants, has turned a “black page”. “The toll is particularly heavy,” according to the mayor, who calls for “serenity and respect” for those involved and relatives.
Kurt Moens, representative of the province of East Flanders (third from the right), Geert Hermans, mayor of Buggenhout (second from the right) and Lisa De Wilde, spokeswoman for the Public Prosecution Service of East Flanders (right) on Tuesday during a press conference about the collision of a train and a school bus at the Vierhuizen level crossing in Buggenhout.
Photo DIRK WAEM / BELGA
Prime Minister Bart De Wever is “deeply affected”, King Philip wishes “all those involved in this drama a lot of strength and support”. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen writes onher heart broke” when hearing about the accident: “Europe mourns with Belgium”.
The press turned out en masse. Spanish, English and German journalists have difficulty interviewing residents. Closed shutters draw brick houses. In addition to the heat – about thirty degrees – the few residents on the street also try to wave away as many questions as possible. And not everyone speaks English in the forest community. „The New York Times was just hanging on the line, it is unprecedented,” says Thomas Baeken of Infrabel, the manager of the Belgian rail network.
In a yellow vest he walks along the track at the railway crossing on Stationsstraat, near Vierhuizen street. The school bus came from the parallel Kerkhofstraat and turned left here, he points out. “The only good level crossing is an abolished level crossing,” he says thoughtfully. But, he hastens to say: “everything worked correctly here.”
According to Baeken, images – in the possession of the public prosecutor’s office – show a closed level crossing, four red lights, ringing bells and barriers down. Initial findings based on the European safety system ETCS (European Train Control System) show that the train was traveling at approximately 90 kilometers per hour at the time of the collision. The train’s ‘black box’ still needs to be read, Baeken confirms. “But the train was already slowing down, approaching the nearby Buggenhout station.”
The Belgian railway has approximately 1,600 level crossings. Rail network operator Infrabel closes about 15 to 20 level crossings per year. “That is slow, but it requires local permission and money for alternatives [bruggen, tunnels of verbindingswegen] “, says Baeken. Belgium has many level crossings because it was the first European country on the mainland to have rail connections since 1835. Construction around the track followed later, creating a multitude of level crossings, Baeken explains.
Barrier broken
The white school bus is still on its side next to the tracks. A struck overhead line pole hangs against a fiber optic cable. The red barrier of the crossing has broken. There were no plans to abolish the railway crossing at Vierhuizen. According to grid operator Infrabel, no accident has occurred during the transition in question for almost twenty years. “It’s clearly none hotspot” concludes Baeken. Accidents at level crossings show a downward trend in Belgium. While a total of 29 accidents – excluding (attempted) suicides – were registered in 2025, there was an average of around 50 accidents annually in the period 2008-2021.
A drone photo shows the damaged school bus that was hit by a train at a railway crossing on Tuesday near Buggenhout, Belgium.
Photo Bart Biesemans / REUTERS
The collision is “one of the deadliest accidents at level crossings in Belgium ever,” said Baeken. The accident poses major questions to experts and residents. “Did the driver of the school bus become unwell, did he have cardiac arrest, or did he consciously ignore the red lights?” asks resident Guy Van Morter (63). “I’m not going to watch too much – I’m not a disaster tourist – and follow it via The Latest News“, continues Van Morter, who “woke up from the heavy blow”.
The atmosphere at Richtpunt campus Buggenhout, the location for secondary special education to which the bus was en route, is depressed. A couple embraces each other. Director Jolien Roef keeps the press at a distance “out of respect for the students, who have just received a very difficult message.” A school bell rings lost in the background, most students have already been picked up. A little further on, in the St. Nicholas Church, three women pray near a statue of Mary.
The accident poses major questions to experts and residents
The accident is reminiscent of the train accident in Roeselare, Belgium, where a train derailed in 2006 and three people died. And even more so in Oss, the Netherlands, where in 2018 an electric handcart collided with a train at a railway crossing, killing four young children.
Train traffic will (partly) resume in Buggenhout on Tuesday evening. The municipal disaster plan is in force until then. The East Flanders public prosecutor’s office states that the train driver tested negative on an alcohol and drug test. An autopsy will follow on the body of the school bus driver.
Mourning registers and flowers appear in the municipality, near the railway. Residents watch the national news indoors, where their Buggenhout predominates today. Local resident Peeters: “I deliberately don’t turn on the TV, I’ve seen enough.”
A school bus is towed away on Tuesday after a collision with a train at the Vierhuizen level crossing in Buggenhout, about 25 kilometers northwest of Brussels.
Photo DIRK WAEM / AFP
