One person survives head-on crash between small bus and truck in Poland

A small bus carrying farm workers crashed head-on with a truck in central Poland Tuesday, killing all but one of the 18 people on board, police said.

Magdalena Siczek-Zalewska, a spokeswoman for the regional police, said the crash occurred early Tuesday morning on a local road near Nowe Miasto, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Warsaw. She said all the fatalities were from the Volkswagen minibus, which apparently was carrying seasonal workers to work in an orchard in one of Poland's best known apple and plum regions, The Associated Press reports.

Police are discerning the cause of the accident, although Mazovian Police spokesman Tadeusz Kaczmarek has said that difficult atmospheric conditions, such as fog, and high speeds were probably the cause of the accident.

The accident happened during Sensible Speed Day in Poland, an event held to mark European Road Safety Day.

Poland still has alarming statistics as to road fatalities. Only last weekend, there were 350 collisions in which 33 people died and over 440 were wounded. In the majority of cases the main cause of the accidents is speeding. Drunk driving is the second cause of fatal road accidents in Poland, thenews.pl informs.