Twenty people were injured, six seriously, in a collision between a passenger and freight train near Škrinjari on Saturday morning. The hero of the day is Božidar Zrinski, who used his machine to help the victims.
On Saturday, August 8, 2026, a collision occurred between a passenger and a freight train on the railway line between Sveti Ivan Žabno and Gradec, near the village of Škrinjari. According to the Ministry of Health, six passengers sustained serious injuries and 14 sustained minor injuries.
While emergency services rushed to the scene, local resident Božidar Zrinski was the first to lend a hand. He came across the accident by chance, on his way back from a gas station. "I went to get my machine and saw what needed to be done. It was my civic duty," Zrinski said.
Realizing the urgency, Zrinski did not hesitate to use his forklift to lower the injured passengers from the railway embankment. "By the time I went to get the machine, the ambulance had already arrived. I lowered the injured with my machine, a forklift-I don't know how they would have gotten them down," he recounted. Among the passengers were two young children, about whom he said: "They were confused, but they weren't crying."
Koprivnica-Križevci County Prefect Tomislav Golubić publicly thanked Zrinski. "I thank that man who used his forklift to lower all the passengers and victims. This made the job easier for the emergency services, and thanks to him, all the injured reached hospitals in time," Golubić said. He added that none of the injured are in life-threatening condition and praised the swift response of the firefighters, noting that more than 50 firefighters took part in the rescue.
The injured passengers were transported to several hospitals. Seven people were treated at the Dr. Anđelko Višić General Hospital in Bjelovar. Director Sanela Grbaš Bratković stated that the most seriously injured is a young woman who is in intensive care but is stable. CT scans were pending for three patients, while three others had bruises, but none of them were seriously injured. The Dr. Tomislav Bardek General Hospital in Koprivnica expected the arrival of six passengers with minor injuries, confirmed on-call surgeon Ivan Štriga. Some passengers were also taken to hospitals in Zagreb, but KB Dubrava confirmed that none of the injured were admitted there.
The collision occurred at 10:05 a.m. when a freight train operated by HŽ Cargo and a passenger train operated by HŽ Passenger Transport collided. There were about twenty passengers on the passenger train. Police, emergency medical services, and other relevant services immediately arrived at the scene. The railway section between Sveti Ivan Žabno and Gradec is closed to traffic until further notice, and passengers on this route are being transported by bus. HŽ Infrastructure stated that it is not yet possible to provide more information about the causes and circumstances of the accident and that there were no fatalities.
