Polish pilgrims and wounded 32 others near Lake Balaton on Monday July 1. Spokesman Ferenc Vass told reporters Wednesday, July 3, that experts concluded that the diver went "too fast for the road conditions," in an area where cars often compete with bicycles and horses.
The bus, carrying 49 pilgrims from Stoczek in eastern Poland and two drivers, was bound for a shrine to the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje in southeast Bosnia when it crashed between two Lake Balaton towns, about 170 kilometres (105 miles) south west of Budapest.
Investigators noted that the coach was traveling at about 80 km/h (50 mph) when it hit a curb, careened into the center of a traffic circle, and overturned near the town of Balatonszentgorgy. Rescue workers said the top of the bus was "literally shaved off or ground away", when the vehicle crashed.
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
Survivors and investigators have also suggested that technical difficulties made it more difficult for the driver to react. "As we were approaching the roundabout, the back of the bus started swaying.
The driver on rest (who was killed) told the driver to brake. But he answered "I cannot. It isn’t working,"" an unidentified woman who survived the accident told the TV2 commercial television station.
Authorities said the dead include two children, eight women and nine men. Eye-witnesses described the damage as so severe that the bus had to be cut into pieces to remove the casualties.
The crash occurred on the main highway between Budapest and Zagreb, Croatia, which is often used by pilgrims from neighboring countries to the former Yugoslavia.
