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School bus slides off highway, injuring 47 in Croatia

04 June 2010 04:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Forty-seven people were injured, most of them elementary school children, on Thursday when their bus slid off the motorway near Karlovac, Croatia, according to the Croatian news agency Hina, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.
According to hospital officials at Karlovac General Hospital, four of the injured, including one teacher, sustained serious injuries, but none were life threatening. Most the injured were, however, said to be in a state of shock. Thirteen of the patients were treated and released.
The seventh graders and their teachers from the small town of Velika Gorica, just south of the capital Zagreb, were heading toward the Adriatic coast on a school excursion. Children reported seeing the bus driver slumped over the steering wheel at the time of the incident.
The bus, with 52 passengers on board, reportedly smashed through the median separating the divided highway and crossed into the lanes traveling in the opposite direction, subsequently breaking through a second barrier before coming to a stop. A police investigation is ongoing.
Police, firefighters and emergency crews transported the injured to hospital. Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and the Mayor of Karlovac, Damir Jelic, visited the injured.