Twelve people have died after a bus carrying Polish pilgrims overturned on Hungary’s M3 motorway while returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The crash happened near Mezőkeresztes at about 1am local time, when the bus left a straight section of road, entered a ditch and overturned, Hungarian police said.
Early reports suggested the driver may have fallen asleep. He survived and was taken into custody.
The bus was carrying 57 passengers and two drivers from Poland’s south-eastern Podkarpackie region. The group had been returning from a pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine in Međugorje, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Poland’s foreign ministry said virtually all passengers were taken to hospitals in Eger, Debrecen and Miskolc. Ten people were in serious condition, while Hungary’s ambulance service said 37 others sustained minor injuries.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki expressed condolences to the victims’ families, describing the crash as an unimaginable tragedy.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar also offered condolences and thanked emergency workers involved in the rescue operation.
Poland’s infrastructure minister, Dariusz Klimczak, said the country’s road transport inspectorate would carry out enhanced checks on buses and drivers’ working hours.
The owner of the bus company told Business Insider Polska that the vehicle had been driven by two experienced drivers.
A group of Polish prosecutors from Krosno will lead the investigation into the crash, the prosecutors’ office said.
