Three Days Of Mourning
President Lech Kaczynski has declared a period of national mourning following the fatal bus crash in France yesterday.
A group of Polish pilgrims had been visiting a number of sacred sites in France near Grenoble when disaster struck. Having left the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-De-La-Salette, the breaks on the group's bus appeared to fail as the vehicle passed through the Alpine village of Vizille.
Unable to control the bus, the driver skidded for some one hundred yards before the vehicle left the road and careered down a riverbank.
Villagers struggled to free passengers before the bus was engulfed in flames. Some 26 people have died, and several more are in critical condition. The majority of the group were from Szczecin, northern Poland, and they were between the age of 50 and 70. One of the survivors is a child who's father perished in the accident.
President Kaczynski flew to Grenoble yesterday where he joined his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.
It is the worst Polish accident on foreign territory on living memory. President Kaczynski has announced three days of mourning, beginning Monday.
** The majority of concerts and other cultural events that were due to take place across Poland during the Monday to Wednesday period will be postponed.
Comments
IT WAS VERY SAD TO HEAR ABOUT THE BUS CRASH WHICH HAS LEFT MANY FAMILIES DEVASTATED, OUR HEART GOES OUT TO THEM.
ReplyThis is a terrible tragedy but is the Polish tradition of declaring days of national mourning really in anyone's best interest. Without wanting to seem coldhearted should everyone in Poland be forced to stop what they're doing everytime someone dies. People that of course are as unknown to most of us as the thousands of Africans and Asians and Americans that no doubt died within the last 24hours. It is overly sentimental and unrealistic to force the whole country into mourning and a lot of painstakingly prepared concerts and events will be ruined, with many people losing significant money. National mourning is a nice idea which actually helps no one and causes considerable disruption and loss of business unnecessarily.
Reply
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