The Polish Embassy in Croatia said it holds a preliminary list of the injured in the accident of a Polish bus on the A4 motorway near the villages of Jarek Bisaszki and Podworzec near Zagreb last Saturday, 6 August, at around 5:40 a.m. “In uncontested cases, families have been informed of the fate of their relatives”, the Embassy said.

The accident killed 12 people and injured 32, 19 of them seriously. A bus carrying pilgrims travelling towards Zagreb, who were heading to Medjugorie, left the road and crashed into a ditch near the highway. Croatian police are establishing the causes of the incident.

A few hours after the accident, a government delegation with Health Minister Adam Niedzielski and Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz travelled to Croatia. On the night of Saturday to Sunday, four lightly injured people returned to Poland with the delegation and were taken to the Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration in Warsaw.

Twelve people died in the accident and several are still under intensive care. “We are doing everything to ensure that the full identification procedure is completed as soon as possible”, writes the Embassy and emphasises that it currently holds a preliminary list of the injured.

“In each case, it has been verified on the basis of passenger lists from the organiser of the trip, on the basis of the documents and photographs we have in our possession, the reports received on our hotline and the specific signs given to us, as well as conversations with conscious passengers”, informs the Embassy.

“In uncontested cases (and especially of conscious persons), we have provided families with information about the fate of their relatives”. In cases raising doubts about the identity of the injured person, we are not allowed to pass on such information,” explained the Embassy.

Adrian Andrzejewski