Italian state television reported that five others were also injured in the accident on the A14 highway close to Forli’. This was a town in northeastern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna. The rest of the passengers were evacuated safely, it said.
The bus crashed onto a grassy slope, just past a guardrail on the highway and close to a field. Two cranes were used by firefighters to raise the bus and then remove it from the ground.
Investigations are ongoing into the cause of the accident. Andrea Biagioli, a Highway Police official, stated that there were no skid marks.
Biagioli stated that it could have been the driver suddenly falling asleep. He stressed that no cause has been established in any of these cases.
According to Italy’s Interior Ministry, the bus was traveling from Ukraine and was headed south towards Pescara (an Adriatic port city) when it overturned. According to the ministry, the passengers were taken to nearby police barracks for assistance and will later resume their journey.
According to LaPresse, the victim was a 32 year-old woman who had two children aged 5 and 10. They were both left with bruises from the accident. According to Milan’s Corriere della Sera, the victim was crushed under the bus.
An earlier report by firefighters stated that there were approximately 50 refugees on the bus. Corriere Della Sera stated that 22 refugees were aboard the bus that had flipped over, and that others were on another bus that was not involved in the crash.
LaPresse stated that the children were taken to a hospital for psychological and medical treatment.
LaPresse stated that the bus had been traveling for approximately 20 hours before it was overturned. It had left western Ukraine.
About 35,000 Ukrainian refugees fled Russia’s war crimes and entered Italy via the northeastern border with Slovenia.
