A bus and a semi-trailer truck collided on National Road 3 in Temacine, Touggourt province, on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Xinhua put the toll at six dead and 15 injured. Le Matin d’Algerie, citing the official “Tariqi” platform, reported five deaths at the scene and the same 15 injured.
The figures moved during the day. TSA Algerie’s first count, filed as rescue crews were still working, listed at least five dead and seven hurt.
What rescuers found
According to TSA, the bus had been traveling from Hassi Messaoud toward Touggourt. Civil protection units were called out at 1:06 PM and sent a rescue vehicle and six ambulances. “The rescue operation is still underway,” the outlet quoted authorities as saying in its early report.
Injured passengers were taken to Temacine Public Hospital, Le Matin d’Algerie said. The Touggourt governor went to the crash site himself, joined by military sector officials, civil protection and health authorities, and the territorial commander of the National Gendarmerie. Xinhua reported that the gendarmerie opened an investigation into how the crash happened. Temacine lies roughly 660 kilometers southeast of Algiers.
The road connects the provinces of Touggourt and Ouargla, according to Le Matin d’Algerie.
Second bus crash in a day
TSA noted that this was the second deadly bus accident in Algeria within 24 hours. A day earlier, a bus crash in Naama killed 1 person and injured 29.
Road deaths run high in the country. Xinhua cited official data showing up to 4,000 fatalities from traffic accidents every year. Parliament adopted a bill in December to toughen penalties for reckless drivers, TSA reported, but it ran into resistance: after a ten-day transporters’ strike in January, the Senate rejected 11 of its contested articles.
Le Matin d’Algerie ended its report on a blunt observation, that “il n’y a plus une semaine sans que les routes ne soient le theatre de dramatiques accidents”. Roughly, there is no longer a week in which the roads are not the scene of a dramatic accident.
Sources
- Truck-Bus Collision in Algeria (Xinhua)
- Drame routier a Touggourt (Le Matin d'Algerie)
- Collision bus-camion en Algerie : au moins cinq morts a Touggourt (TSA)
