A CZECH bus carrying Slovak students on a return trip from a holiday in Italy crashed in the Styria region of Austria on Sunday, June 21.
Over 30 people were injured in the accident, three of whom were reported to be in a serious condition, Slovak Foreign Ministry spokesman Ján Škoda told the SITA newswire.
The accident happened at around 06:00 on Sunday, June 21, on the A2 highway between Mooskirchen and Lieboch in the direction of Graz. The bus went off the road and overturned.
The police are assuming that the bus driver fell asleep while driving.
The Slovak Health Ministry sent its crisis intervention team to the Austrian hospitals that received the Slovak patients after the bus accident. Health Minister Richard Raši also went to the scene of the accident.
The bus had two Czech drivers and was carrying 48 people altogether, 40 of them Slovak students aged 15 to 20 who attend a private business school in Senica, along with their five teachers. They were returning from a school trip to Riccione, Italy.
Of the 18 students who were hospitalised in Graz five were still being kept in an Austrian hospital as The Slovak Spectator went to press but were due to be released by June 28. Most of the injured students had scratches and broken bones, said Karin Brániková, a member of the crisis intervention team, as reported by SITA.
The medical costs of the students were covered under a standard travel insurance policy with the Generali Slovensko insurance company, which has estimated treatment costs to be about €100,000.
