The driver of the bus that crashed near Leipzig on Wednesday was a Czech. This was said by the spokesman of the Saxon police, Chris Graupner, according to whom Čech and his Slovak substitute survived. Graupner also stated that he does not currently see any other Czech or Slovak citizens among the injured and dead. At the same time, the Saxon police reduced the number of dead from the originally reported five to four. About 40 people were injured in the crash, six of whom remain in a serious condition, according to the Leipziger Volkszeitung. The police did not provide further details about the dead and injured.
The circumstances of the accident are not yet known. However, the spokesman of the public prosecutor’s office in Leipzig said on Thursday afternoon that the Czech driver is being investigated for negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm. “This is our normal procedure. When a bus driver causes an accident in which someone dies, an investigation is opened for bodily harm and manslaughter,” the spokesman said. The spokesman did not know whether Cech had already been questioned in this matter.
54 people, including a 62-year-old Czech driver and his 53-year-old Slovak colleague, were traveling on a FlixBus bus on the route from Berlin to Zurich, Switzerland. “The Czech was the driver, the Slovak was the substitute driver,” said Graupner. He stated that he could not say anything more about the condition of the drivers.
The accident happened near Leipzig on the A9 highway, which connects Berlin with Munich. The bus crashed near the junction of the A9 with the A14 motorway from Magdeburg to Dresden. The cause of the accident has not yet been published, according to the media, the bus suddenly went off the highway into a ditch, where it overturned.
