“I, too, am a victim: my shoulder is broken, my ribs are broken and my spine has been seriously injured,” one survivor of Sunday’s early-morning tragedy on Hungary’s M3 motorway told this outlet in an exclusive interview. She said she had literally dug herself out from beneath the overturned coach before help arrived. Below are the latest developments in the disaster.
Exclusive interview with a survivor of the Polish bus crash – she had to claw her way out
Twelve people died and one was left in a life-threatening condition after the Polish-registered bus, carrying 57 passengers and two drivers, left the M3 motorway under circumstances not yet fully established and plunged into a roadside ditch. Authorities are investigating what happened, but suspicion is mounting that the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. All 57 passengers and both drivers were Polish citizens, prompting Hungary’s Prime Minister and Speaker of the National Assembly yesterday to express their condolences to their Polish counterparts.
Read our previous articles about the tragic accident:
12 killed in devastating bus crash on Hungary’s M3 motorway
‘It happened in seconds’: Survivor reveals horror of deadly Polish bus crash on Hungary’s motorway
Bus crash tragedy in Hungary: Company owner claims drivers were experienced, Polish PM to send special aircraft
The survivor interviewed by Global News, an elderly woman whose name has not been released, is currently recovering in a Hungarian hospital. She said she was on the phone to a friend back home when she heard a huge crash, felt the bus spin and struck her head. She remained conscious enough to grasp what had happened and, literally, to dig herself out from under the bus. Those trapped inside were shouting; most had been pinned beneath their seats.
Brigitta Szűcs, spokeswoman for the National Ambulance Service, said 14 ambulance units reached the scene. Twelve people died in the crash; one person was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Nine suffered serious injuries and are being treated in Nyíregyháza, Miskolc, Eger and Debrecen.
Here is the full video, followed by the latest developments:
Driver may have fallen asleep – charges expected soon
Police have opened an investigation into the driver of the bus involved in Sunday’s crash on the M3 motorway on suspicion of negligently causing a fatal mass accident, the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Police Headquarters press officer told MTI on Monday. Rudolf Varga said the driver had been taken into custody and a court could decide on his remand in the coming days. According to the police’s preliminary data, the driver probably fell asleep, MTI reports.
Two patients now in life-threatening condition in Miskolc
Of the nine injured taken to Miskolc, two are being treated in serious, life-threatening but currently stable condition in the Central Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Unit of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Central Hospital and University Teaching Hospital, the hospital’s press officer told MTI on Monday. Csaba Németh said both seriously injured patients require surgical intervention; one was in the operating theatre at the time of the statement. Their care and intensive treatment are ongoing.
He added that five patients are being treated in the hospital’s trauma unit, their care provided according to the nature and severity of their injuries.
One injured person left hospital on Sunday after outpatient treatment, while a patient with a spinal injury is being kept under observation in the neurosurgery unit. He is in a condition suitable for transfer for further hospital treatment.The press officer indicated that the hospital is providing an interpreter for relatives and that a Polish medical team may arrive today to help ease the treatment of the injured.
Polish hospitals ready to receive the injured – seven dead identified so far
Two Warsaw hospitals and several hospitals in southern Poland are ready to receive patients injured in the M3 motorway bus crash, Teresa Kubas-Hul, head of Poland’s Subcarpathian (Podkarpacie) Voivodeship, said at a Monday press conference. Ms Kubas-Hul added that seven of the dead had so far been identified.
The Polish air ambulance service is on standby and, if possible, will repatriate the seriously injured. That decision will be taken by the Polish medical team dispatched to Hungary, the voivode said.If some of the injured need to be treated in Hungarian hospitals, Poland’s state Strategic Reserves Agency (RARS) will procure and deliver the necessary medicines, Kubas-Hul announced.
She also said that, in addition to others, six Polish police officers and a team of prosecutors had set off for Hungary and were investigating the incident on site on behalf of the Polish side.Earlier official reports said that on Sunday evening Poland’s Deputy Health Minister Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Deputy Foreign Minister Wojciech Zajączkowski, several Warsaw diplomats and six doctors flew to Hungary on a government aircraft.
In case any of the injured need to be flown home, a CASA military aircraft based in Kraków, two air ambulance planes and ambulances have been placed on standby.
Horror crash on Hungarian motorway: Child thrown from British-registered car
Eger hospital organising repatriation of motorway bus crash patients
The Markhot Ferenc Hospital in Eger, in northern Hungary, has begun organising the repatriation of those injured in a bus crash on the M3 motorway over the weekend, a spokesperson for the hospital said on Monday. Erzsébet Szegedi told MTI that the hospital is treating 10 people injured in the crash. Seven of them are being treated in the trauma unit, two in orthopaedics and one in intensive care.
All are in a stable condition, though some are still awaiting further tests, Szegedi said. Four are in a serious condition, typically with cervical, thoracic, or skull fractures, she added. She said staff from the Polish embassy and consulate have arrived at the hospital to coordinate and arrange the repatriation of the injured. Their work is being assisted by two interpreters.
A bus carrying Polish pilgrims crashed in the early hours of Sunday on the M3 motorway near the Mezokeresztes exit in northern Hungary. Twelve people died in the accident, and rescuers treated one person with life-threatening injuries, nine with serious injuries, and a further 37 with minor injuries.
