BARCELONA, Spain – A bus plunged 20 metres down an embankment on Sunday afternoon in Fogars de Montclús, Barcelona. So far emergency services have treated 83 people, of whom 58 have minor injuries, 18 are in a less serious condition and seven are in a serious condition, according to Health Minister Olga Pané in a briefing to the media at the La Font de Cal Guardià restaurant, where the accident’s control centre has been set up.
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The minister has not ruled out the possibility of fatalities, as firefighters are working to search the difficult-to-access area in case any passenger was thrown clear after the fall and is injured near the bus or beneath the vehicle. She also detailed that of the seven seriously injured, four have already been transferred, one to the Trueta Hospital in Girona, another to Granollers and a third to the Vall d’Hebrón in Barcelona, with one of the less seriously injured also taken to Granollers Hospital. The alert was received at 4.43pm, when a vehicle from the Sagalés coach company covering the route between Fogars de Montclús and Santa Fe del Montseny collided, for reasons under investigation, with a car on the BV-5114 road, causing it to plunge down a slope, with the road currently closed to traffic by the Mossos d’Esquadra.
Twenty-three ambulances, two medical helicopters and three joint teams from the Medical Emergency System and the Generalitat’s firefighters have been deployed to the area, with the firefighters working through the night, searching the zone with drones and personnel within a 30-metre radius of the bus. Once the scene has been cleared, dogs will be brought in to definitively rule out the presence of people. In the morning, in addition to guaranteeing the absence of victims, the lifting of the bus, which was provisionally stabilised on Sunday, will be managed, according to firefighters’ intervention chief Santi Lleonart. In a briefing to the media, he also explained that they do not know how many people were inside the vehicle at the time of the accident, since the bus covered a connecting route for which no ticket was required, though he detailed that the total number of available seats was 63.
Generalitat president Salvador Illa said in a social media post that he is following the accident with great concern and is in permanent contact with Interior Minister Núria Parlon and Health Minister Olga Pané to know how the situation is evolving, with the interior minister thanking the emergency teams and wishing all the injured a good recovery. The company that operates these buses said through social media that from the first moment it has been collaborating with the emergency services and the competent authorities and places itself at their disposal to facilitate all the information necessary to clarify the circumstances of the accident. As a result of the accident, Civil Protection has activated the Procicat plan in the alert phase and launched the territorial operation to monitor the emergency and coordinate actions.
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The Red Cross has also set up a reception centre in Sant Celoni to care for those affected, with psychological support professionals activated in coordination with the Medical Emergency System to attend to those affected, and volunteers from Santa Maria de Palautordera and Sant Pere de Vilamajor have been mobilised to support the operation.
