Twelve Dead After Polish Tour Bus Strikes Hungarian Motorway


At approximately 01:00 local time on Sunday, a Polish pilgrim bus carrying 57 passengers veered off the M3 motorway, which connects Budapest to Nyíregyháza, and plunged into a ditch beside the road. The crash left the heavy vehicle overturned, trapping many inside.



Crumbled bus on Hungarian motorway
A crumpled red bus sits at the bottom of a ravine as firefighters attend.


Firefighters first attempted to lift the rear axle of the 24‑tonne bus before cranes arrived to lift the entire vehicle and free trapped passengers. Thirty‑five passengers and two drivers have been rescued so far, but authorities still await the outcome of several others still stuck beneath the wreckage.


Hungary’s emergency services treated one person with life‑threatening injuries, nine people with serious injuries, and 37 with minor injuries. The bus driver was taken into custody after police identified him as the likely cause of the accident. Police say the driver fell asleep at the wheel during the night.


Prime Minister Péter Magyar offered sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery. In a similar statement, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a special aircraft would be dispatched with foreign‑ministry officials and medical services to support the victims.


The bus had returned from a trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, carrying pilgrims from Poland’s southernmost region, Podkarpacie, as noted by Polish news agency PAP. Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski received confirmation that Hungarian authorities had begun questioning the driver.