Twelve people died after a bus carrying Polish tourists overturned on Hungary’s M3 motorway near Mezőkeresztes at 1am local time. The crash involved pilgrims returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the driver survived before being taken into custody.
Poland’s foreign ministry said 57 passengers and two drivers were onboard, and virtually all passengers were transferred to local hospitals in Eger, Debrecen and Miskolc. The Hungarian ambulance service said 10 people were in a serious condition and 37 sustained minor injuries.
Poland and Hungary respond
Karol Nawrocki said he received the tragic news of the accident involving a Polish bus in Hungary, saying, “With deep sorrow, I received the tragic news of the accident involving a Polish bus in Hungary, in which so many of our compatriots perished.” He added, “In the face of this unimaginable tragedy, which has touched us all, I join in prayer and profound compassion with the families and loved ones of the victims.”
Péter Magyar expressed his “sincere condolences to the families of the victims” and thanked the emergency services involved in the rescue operation. Dariusz Klimczak said the general inspectorate of road transport would conduct enhanced checks on all buses and drivers’ working hours, a move that puts the focus on how long the vehicle had been on the road before the overturning.
Krosno prosecutors lead probe
Local police said the bus “went off the straight road into a ditch and overturned,” and early reports suggested the driver had probably fallen asleep. The owner of the bus company said the vehicle “was driven by two experienced drivers,” a detail that sits alongside the police account and will be tested in the investigation.
Polish prosecutors from Krosno will lead the investigation, giving Poland a direct role in a case that began on Hungary’s motorway but involved a group traveling from Podkarpackie. The route matters because the passengers were returning from a pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine in Međugorje in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, a long overnight journey that places driver working hours at the center of the inquiry.
For families, the immediate next step is not another announcement but the checks now being carried out on buses and driver hours, alongside the medical treatment already underway in Eger, Debrecen and Miskolc. Poland also has a grim reference point: in 2002, 20 Polish pilgrims died and 31 were injured in a bus crash in Hungary, and in 2022, 12 people died and 30 were injured when a bus carrying Polish pilgrims to Međugorje crashed in Croatia.
