Bus crash on highway in Croatia kills at least 12 pilgrims

Early Saturday morning, a bus bringing pilgrims to a shrine in Bosnia veered off a highway in northern Croatia, killing at least 12 and wounding numerous others, according to police and officials.

According to preliminary information from the scene, eleven persons were killed and a number of others were injured when a bus with Polish license plates skidded off the road. The bus was carrying 43 individuals, according to officials, one of whom died at a hospital later.

State-run HRT television in Croatia stated that approximately 30 people were hurt, many badly. It was stated that drowsiness was the most likely reason of the collision.

The broadcaster displayed footage of a blue bus in a ditch adjacent to the highway that had been severely damaged. The bus was headed towards Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister of Poland, claimed that the bus was transporting pilgrims to Medjugorje, a village in southern Bosnia, where there is a Catholic shrine. After Lourdes and Fatima, the shrine is the third-most frequented pilgrimage site in Europe, despite the fact that the Vatican has not confirmed any of the purported miracles that visitors claim to have witnessed there.

“This morning, I discussed the specifics of the tragedy with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, who pledged the full help of Croatian medical services,” Morawiecki wrote on Facebook. I suggested that our consular services establish a support group for the relatives of accident victims.

According to Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinic, the bus was carrying Medjugorje pilgrims from “a place near Warsaw.”

The tragedy occurred at 5:40 a.m. local time around 50 kilometers north of Zagreb on the busy A-4 highway during the height of the tourist season.

Croatian media said that rescue crews were dispatched to the accident site and that an inquiry into the cause of the accident was continuing.