A Polish-registered tourist bus carrying 57 pilgrims overturned on Hungary’s M3 motorway in the early hours of Sunday, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 10 others in one of the country’s deadliest road disasters in recent memory.
The bus, which was returning from a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje in southeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, veered off a straight stretch of the motorway near the town of Mezokeresztes, about 140 kilometres east of Budapest, and rolled into a ditch at around 1 a.m. local time on Sunday, August 16.
Driver Detained, Investigation Underway
Hungarian police said the preliminary assessment suggests the driver likely fell asleep at the wheel. The driver has been taken into custody and faces a criminal investigation. The bus had two drivers on board at the time of the crash.
Images from the scene showed the badly damaged red bus lying on its side in the motorway ditch, its windows shattered and passengers’ belongings and suitcases scattered across the surrounding area. Emergency crews from multiple agencies cut through the bus’s windows to reach passengers trapped inside the wreckage.
Rescue Efforts and Hospital Evacuations
By 3 a.m., Hungarian disaster management services reported that firefighters had rescued 35 people from the coach. The injured were transported to hospitals in four nearby cities to distribute the caseload among medical facilities.
Survivor Helena Tluczek, from Lubenia in southeastern Poland, told Reuters from her hospital bed that she had been on the phone with a friend back in Poland when the bus suddenly tipped over and began rolling. She described the experience as “unimaginable.”
National Mourning
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar confirmed the death toll in a Facebook post, offering condolences to the families of the victims and thanking the rescue workers dispatched to the scene. Polish President Karol Nawrocki expressed his “deep sorrow” in a post on X, writing: “I join the families and loved ones of the victims in prayer and deep sympathy.”
The regional government in Rzeszow, Poland, confirmed the passengers were from Poland’s southeastern Podkarpackie region. The accident marks the deadliest road incident involving Polish nationals in Hungary since July 2002, when a bus carrying Polish pilgrims flipped at a roundabout near Lake Balaton, killing 20 people.
The crash is still developing as authorities work to identify all victims and determine the precise cause of the accident.
Sources: Reuters; AP News; Euronews; MTI Hungarian state news agency
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