Hungarian court detains Polish bus driver for 30 days after crash kills 12
A court in Miskolc placed a 62-year-old Polish bus driver in pre-trial custody for 30 days following an overnight crash on the M3 motorway that killed 12 pilgrims returning from Medjugorje.
Court decision in Miskolc
The District Court in Miskolc ordered a 30-day period of pre-trial detention on Tuesday for the Polish driver involved in a fatal coach crash in eastern Hungary. The judicial hearing commenced at 13:00 on 18 August 2026, with the court issuing its detention decision shortly after 15:00. Under Hungarian procedural law, police may hold a suspect for a maximum of 72 hours without a judicial warrant. Regional prosecutors submitted an application for pre-trial arrest before that deadline elapsed, stating that the 62-year-old suspect presented a flight risk, might hide, or could obstruct evidentiary proceedings.
Circumstances of the M3 motorway crash
The collision took place during the night between 15 and 16 August 2026, at approximately 01:00 local time near the town of Mezőkeresztes along the M3 motorway. The coach, operated by the transport company Michael, was carrying 57 passengers on their return trip to Poland from a religious pilgrimage to the Catholic sanctuary of Medjugorje in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Twelve people died at the scene after the vehicle veered off the road to the right, traversed the emergency lane, and overturned onto its side across an embankment. Medical responders treated multiple survivors, with initial assessments recording three people with life-threatening injuries and between 7 and 20 passengers suffering severe injuries.
- Polish pilgrimage coach veers off the M3 motorway near Mezőkeresztes and overturns
- Hungarian police interrogate the driver under suspicion of negligent endangerment
- Miskolc District Court begins the detention hearing for the driver
- Court orders 30 days of pre-trial detention for the 62-year-old suspect
Driver testimony and defense reaction
Hungarian investigators suspect the driver fell asleep behind the wheel due to physical exhaustion, leading directly to the loss of vehicular control. Tamás Barkó, spokesperson for the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén Regional Prosecutor's Office, outlined the initial findings following the preliminary interrogation on Monday, 17 August.
The suspect has not yet provided explanations. According to information obtained in the course of the proceedings so far, the accident likely occurred as a result of the driver falling asleep at the wheel.
The 62-year-old driver exercised his legal right to refuse to testify during questioning by Hungarian police. His defense lawyer, Béla Beregszászi, told the Hungarian newspaper Blikk that his client remains in a condition of profound shock after learning about the death toll and overall scale of the disaster.
Parallel investigations in Hungary and Poland
Regional prosecution authorities described the mechanical sequence of the crash in statements detailing the loss of control on the motorway.
The driver was not in a state ensuring safe operation of the vehicle; he fell asleep due to fatigue, as a result of which the bus veered off the road to the right across the emergency lane and overturned onto its side on the embankment by the highway.
The legal fallout extends beyond Hungary as Polish authorities initiated a concurrent criminal probe into the tragedy. The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Krosno opened an official investigation regarding the unintentional causation of a land traffic disaster resulting in fatalities. The Polish driver remains held in a Hungarian detention facility for an initial term of one month as forensic reconstruction of the crash continues.
