Forty injured, four in critical condition, in a bus accident in Lleida

BarcelonaAbout forty people were injured this Wednesday morning, four of them in critical condition and seven in less serious condition, in a coach accident in Lleida. Civil Protection reported on the social network X that the incident, which affected at least 43 people, occurred when the vehicle collided with the facade of a building on Rambla Ferran in the city.

The coach had just left the bus station in the capital of Segrià when the accident occurred. "Suddenly it turned to the right and we hit a pillar in front of the Diputació [of Lleida]", explained Dani, one of the passengers, to El matí de Catalunya Ràdio".

The same witness explained that many of the passengers were going to Baix Segre to work in the fruit harvest and highlighted that the vehicle's driver had only recently started and was accompanied by an instructor. The Firefighters clarified that it is still too early to determine the cause of the accident but pointed out that everything seems to indicate that there was a loss of control of the vehicle.

The alert for the accident to 112 was received around a quarter past seven in the morning and the Generalitat Firefighters have deployed about ten units. The Medical Emergency Service (SEM) has activated 12 units, a medicalized helicopter and a team of psychologists. The most seriously injured have been transferred to the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, some of whom are undergoing surgery, while some of the mildly affected have been transferred to the same health center and to the city's CUAP.

According to the testimony of the events collected by Catalunya Ràdio, several of the injured people suffered contusions and others had blood on their faces. The most affected were the passengers who were in the front and on the right side of the bus.

In a message on X, President Salvador Illa reported that he is in contact with the city's mayor, Fèlix Larrosa, and wished a "speedy recovery" to all those injured: "All support to those affected and their families. My thanks to the emergency teams working on this".

The president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, also had words of "support" and "affection" for the victims and their families at the start of the control session for the Government in the Catalan chamber, from where the different spokespersons have repeated their expressions of solidarity.