Louny, North Bohemia, March 9 (CTK) – Forty-seven people, including 43 children, were injured in an accident of a coach on the R7 road near Panensky Tynec in the vicinity of Louny this morning, emergency service spokesman Prokop Volenik told CTK yesterday.
One of the wounded children is in a serious condition at the anaesthesiological-resuscitation (ARO) ward in the Prague-Motol hospital, but the life is not threatened, hospital spokeswoman Pavlina Dankova said.
Another two people suffered injuries in a follow-up collision.
“Forty-seven people, including 43 children, three teachers and the driver, suffered injuries in the coach accident, from light to serious ones,” Volenik told CTK.
The local rescuers asked the emergency services from Central Bohemia and Prague to help tackle the serious accident.
It occurred around 8:00 yesterday. According to the police, the bus got off the road and turned to the side.
The wounded people were transported to hospitals in Prague and other towns in north and central Bohemia.
Prague’s emergency service spokeswoman Jirina Ernestova told CTK that the service had sent its comfortable ATEGO vehicle for up to eight people to the place.
The emergency service declared the accident “an extraordinary event with mass health damage incurred.”
Fourteen emergency service crews are assisting on the spot.
Helicopters could not take off to fly the injured passengers to hospitals due to adverse weather.
The Motol hospital admitted 20 children and four adults injured in the accident, Dankova said.
Other injured people ware taken to hospitals in the central and north Bohemia regions.
According to the police, the accident may have been caused by black ice on the road.
The coach was driving children from a school in Vejprty, west Bohemia, to Prague, for a school trip. They were to visit Prague Castle, the presidential seat.
“The driver is hospitalised in Slany [central Bohemia]. It is an experienced driver, a long-term employee of the firm… I would blame black ice for the accident,” Pavel Sams, executive of the Logistic Euro Bus company, operating the coach, told CTK.
This was the most serious of several accidents that occurred on the frosted R7 road in the foggy weather yesterday, the police said.
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