A survivor of the devastating Polish coach crash on Hungary’s M3 motorway has described how the tragedy unfolded “within seconds”, as grief spreads across communities in southeastern Poland. Twelve people were killed when a bus carrying pilgrims returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina left the motorway and overturned early on Sunday.
The coach was carrying 57 passengers and two drivers when it crashed at around 1 AM near Mezőkeresztes, on the Nyíregyháza-bound side of the M3 motorway. The passengers were Polish citizens returning from a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.
Survivor: ‘It happened in seconds’
According to Polsat News, Wojciech Tatara, the elected representative of the village of Siedliska in southeastern Poland, spoke to one of the survivors by phone while the injured passenger was being treated in a Hungarian hospital. According to Tatara, most of the passengers had been asleep when the crash happened.
“He said it happened within seconds.”
The survivor is expected to remain in hospital for some time but is receiving good care, Tatara said. The tragedy has hit Siedliska particularly hard. Four of the people who died were residents of the village, according to Tatara. He said he personally knew all four.
“It is a huge shock, a black day in the history of Siedliska,” he told Polish media. The village had held its traditional harvest celebration just one day earlier. On Sunday, residents instead gathered in church to pray for those who died and for the recovery of the injured.
Children among those travelling on the coach
Children were also among the passengers, although Tatara said they did not suffer serious injuries. He spoke to the father of one of the children, who was travelling with his wife and children. The father himself suffered injuries serious enough to require continued hospital treatment, while his wife was expected to be discharged sooner.
The full list of those injured and their current conditions is still being established. According to Hungary’s National Ambulance Service, 12 people died, while one person suffered life-threatening injuries, nine were seriously injured and another 37 sustained lighter injuries.
The rescue operation was particularly difficult because several passengers became trapped underneath the approximately 24-tonne vehicle after it overturned onto its side. Firefighters initially entered through the coach’s windows and had freed 35 people by around 3 AM. Cranes and winches were subsequently used to lift the vehicle so rescuers could reach those trapped underneath. The injured were taken to hospitals in Miskolc, Debrecen, Nyíregyháza and Eger.
Read more about the accident:
12 killed in devastating bus crash on Hungary’s M3 motorway
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Driver suspected of falling asleep
Hungarian police currently believe that the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. The coach reportedly left the motorway on a straight section after the Mezőkeresztes exit before overturning in a ditch. However, authorities have stressed that the exact circumstances of the crash remain under investigation.
Both drivers survived and were taken to hospital for examination. Police have said the driver suspected of being behind the wheel at the time of the crash will be taken into custody.
A Polish prosecutor’s office has also opened an investigation and is preparing to cooperate directly with Hungarian authorities. Polish prosecutors and police are expected to seek permission to participate in an examination of the crash site.
Families still trying to contact loved ones
The scale of the disaster has made it difficult for some families to establish contact with relatives. Some injured passengers were taken to hospital without their mobile phones, meaning relatives were still trying to determine whether their loved ones were among the survivors.
Poland’s embassy in Budapest has established a hotline for relatives of those killed or injured in the crash.
The Polish government has also responded to the tragedy, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk announcing that a special aircraft would be sent to Hungary carrying representatives of the foreign ministry and health services.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki expressed his condolences to the victims’ families, while Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Polish diplomatic officials were maintaining contact with Hungarian authorities.
Pilgrimage group was returning from Medjugorje
The group had travelled from Poland’s Podkarpackie (Subcarpathian) Voivodeship and was returning from Medjugorje, the famous Catholic pilgrimage site in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of those on board came from the area around Strzyżów. The mayor of Strzyżów said 11 people from the municipality had taken part in the pilgrimage.
The disaster has also left those who cancelled their trip at the last minute confronting an unbearable sense of relief and shock.
One Polish man, identified as Wiesław, had planned to join the pilgrimage but cancelled for family reasons shortly before departure. Several of his acquaintances were on the coach.
After the crash, the husband of one of the victims called him and told him that his wife had died.
The tragedy is particularly painful given that this was not the first deadly crash involving Polish pilgrims travelling to Medjugorje in Hungary. In 2002, a Polish coach travelling towards the pilgrimage site crashed near Balatonszentgyörgy, killing 19 people and injuring 32, according to Index.
