The investigation into the bus crash that happened early on Sunday on the A3 motorway near the eastern Croatian city of Slavonski Brod is ongoing and the driver will be remanded in custody for causing the accident, national chief of police Nikola Milina said on Monday.

The accident occurred at 6.20 am on Sunday when a Kosovo-registered bus with 69 people on board swerved off the road and overturned, killing 10 passengers and injuring 45, including 15 seriously.

Milina and Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic commented on the accident at a ceremony in Struga Banska, about 100 km southeast of Zagreb, commemorating 13 police officers killed at the start of the war in Croatia 30 years ago.

This was one of the worst road accidents in the history of Croatia, Milina said, extending his condolences to the families of those killed and to the people of Kosovo.

The driver, who admitted to the police he had dozed off for a moment, has been arrested and will be remanded in custody for causing a road accident, an offence carrying a prison term of up to 15 years, Milina confirmed.

The Croatian police has made considerable efforts in preventing road accidents and, he said and added that last year saw the lowest number of traffic accidents and fatalities to date. He stressed that accidents like this were almost impossible to prevent, despite all the measures undertaken.

Interior Minister Bozinovic confirmed that the injured passengers were in stable condition.

“Accidents like this cannot be prevented by penalties alone, but by prevention campaigns, which the police conduct continually. We cannot be satisfied as long as accidents like this occur,” Bozinovic said.