Fundraiser for baby orphaned by speeding driver in Polish city reaches 1 million zloty

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

A fundraiser for an eight-month-old baby who survived an accident in the Polish city of Kraków in which his parents were killed by a speeding driver has reached more than 1 million zloty (€231,000).

The tragedy has prompted widespread anger, with calls from residents and local politicians for the authorities to take action to deal with dangerous driving in the city.

On 22 August, a married couple, Mateusz and Klaudia, both 32, were walking with their baby on Solna Street, close to the southern bank of the Vistula river, when a car driven by 26-year-old Hubert B., whose surname is masked under Polish privacy law, mounted the pavement, killing both parents.

The child, eight-month-old Oliwier, survived the accident but was hospitalised. His condition is continuing to improve, reports broadcaster TVP Kraków.

According to prosecutors, the car was travelling around 40 km/h (25mph) faster than the speed limit in the area. Hubert B., has been charged with unintentionally causing a fatal accident, for which he could face up to eight years in prison.

“The suspect pleaded not guilty to the offence he was charged with, explaining, among other things, that the car skidded due to the uneven road surface,” prosecutors said, adding the suspect has been placed in pretrial detention.

An online fundraiser set up last week to provide Oliwier “with financial security for years to come” shared the news that the baby’s condition is now stable, although “his arm and leg are in plaster”.

“We can’t give Oliwier back his mum and dad,” reads the fundraiser’s description. “However, we can do everything we can to ensure he has the resources for his education and a peaceful start to adult life.”

At the time of writing, the fundraiser has reached more than 1.05 million zloty, over double its initial target. There have been more than 23,300 donations so far.

Meanwhile, Oliwier’s grandfather, Andrzej, told newspaper Fakt that the family had given its consent for the fundraiser and was very grateful for those who had donated. A court in Kraków has granted Mateusz’s brother custody of the child.

As well as sympathy for the victims, the accident aroused anger from residents. Several hundred people attended a protest at the site, holding signs reading “How many more people must die for something to change?” and “Stop road killers”. They installed their own mock-up pedestrian crossing and speed bumps.

“Such tragedies are not isolated incidents,” said the organisers, quoted by news website Interia. They cited police figures showing that Kraków had the most road accidents of all Poland’s provincial capitals in 2025. Its figure of 941 was over 100 more than in Łódź and over 250 more than in Warsaw.

Local councillor Rafał Zawiślak told news website Onet that he was filing a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, saying the city authorities had been negligent, failing to respond to warnings from 2024 that the site of the accident was dangerous.

Acting mayor Stanisław Kracik said that an inspection of the street carried out after the accident had not shown any problems with the existing signage or need for traffic-calming measures. He added, however, that the city would be installing a speed bump.

“I believe that this is simply what we should do…as a kind of expression of solidarity with the victims of this tragedy,” he said, quoted by broadcaster TVN.

City police said they had been monitoring and taking action about road safety issues in the district for years, but that the street in question had not previously been reported as a particularly dangerous place, with just one incident causing one injury in the five years before the fatal accident.

The police also claimed that Kraków is “one of the safest cities” in Poland, with 768 road accidents per 100,000 residents this year, compared to over 1,000 in some other cities.

However, TVN points out that the same statistics show that, this year, Kraków has had 71 accidents per 100,000 inhabitants in which someone was injured or killed, compared to 28 in Katowice and 27 in Warsaw.

Road safety in Poland has improved dramatically, with the country recording the EU’s largest decline in road deaths between 2019 and 2024. However, its overall number of road deaths in relation to population is still above the EU average.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Jakub Włodek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl 

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator, lecturer, and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.