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Hungarian police reported that the bus carrying 57 passengers and two drivers veered off the M3 motorway near Mezokeresztes in eastern Hungary while traveling toward Nyíregyháza. The 24-tonne coach overturned into a ditch around 1 a.m. local time, resulting in 12 deaths at the scene. Emergency responders from multiple agencies arrived quickly to secure the area east of Budapest and begin extracting those trapped inside the wreckage.
The driver has been taken into custody as investigators examine whether fatigue contributed to the loss of control, police said in a statement. Firefighters assisted in freeing survivors from the overturned vehicle while medical teams treated the injured at the site before transferring them to hospitals in the region. Rescue operations continued for several hours as authorities worked to clear the motorway and assess the full extent of the damage.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar addressed the incident in a social media post on Sunday morning. “My sincere condolences to the families of the victims. I am grateful to everyone who took part in the rescue efforts,” Magyar said. The statement highlighted the coordinated response involving police, firefighters and ambulance services.
This crash bears similarities to a 2022 incident in Croatia where a bus carrying Polish pilgrims left the road and killed 12 people, Reuters reported at the time. Hungarian authorities have recorded other serious motorway accidents this year, including successive collisions on the M1 in June that claimed eight lives according to police accounts. Such events involving foreign-registered coaches have drawn attention to cross-border transport safety standards.
The European Commission released preliminary figures in March showing EU-wide road deaths fell 3 percent in 2025 to around 19,400. Hungary achieved an additional reduction in that period with a 24 percent decline in fatalities between 2019 and 2025, the European Transport Safety Council data indicates. Polish police separately reported 1,660 road deaths in their country last year, a 12 percent improvement from 2024.
Investigators continue to review vehicle telemetry, driver logs and road conditions as part of the formal inquiry, Hungarian officials stated. Support has been extended to the surviving passengers, many of whom were tourists, and to the families of the deceased. The incident has prompted calls for stricter enforcement of rest regulations on long-haul international bus routes across Central Europe.
