A late-night journey across Central Europe ended in catastrophe when a Polish coach overturned on a Hungarian motorway, killing 12 people and leaving at least 10 others seriously injured, Prime Minister Peter Magyar and officials said.
The bus, travelling from Serbia to Poland, crashed at about 1am local time (midnight Irish time) on the M3 highway near Mezokeresztes, east of Budapest, police said in a statement.
According to Hungary’s national disaster management agency, the coach was carrying 57 passengers and two drivers when it “left the road, ended up in a ditch, and came to a stop on its side,” as the agency described in a social media post.
Eleven people were pronounced dead at the scene, and a twelfth later died in hospital, the agency said. The ambulance service reported that 37 others sustained minor injuries.
Rescue crews faced difficult conditions at the crash site. The fire brigade and other emergency workers had to pull some passengers out through the windows after they became trapped inside the overturned vehicle.
Two cranes were ultimately brought in to lift the bus from the ditch, the disaster management agency said.
Police said early indications point to driver fatigue, adding on their website that preliminary information suggests the driver likely fell asleep.”
The crash ranks as Hungary’s deadliest road accident since 2003, when a train struck a German tourist bus at Siofok, killing 33 people. In 2002, another bus disaster involving Polish pilgrims near the western town of Balatonszentgyorgy (ouest) claimed 19 lives.
Mr Magyar disclosed the toll from the latest crash on social media.
“I send my sincere condolences to the families of the victims,” he said. “I thank all the people who took part in the rescue operation.”
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski described the incident as a “tragic bus accident involving Polish tourists” in a post on X.
“The consular service is acting. We are in contact with the Hungarian authorities,” he added. Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed there were 12 dead.
