In one of the worst traffic accidents in Latin America, a bus carrying more than 70 people fell off a bridge and into a river, killing more than 50 people.
Rescuers reported that a bus went over a guard barrier and fell into a ravine in Guatemala City, killing at least 51 passengers. This is one of the worst traffic catastrophes in Latin America in recent memory.
The bus was carrying over 70 people when it fell off a bridge into an effluent-contaminated river on Monday, and the municipal fire department reported that 51 people’s bodies had been recovered from the debris.
According to Volunteer Firefighters spokesperson Victor Gomez, who was part of the rescue attempt, there were “51 bodies in the provisional morgue.”
Ten injured persons have already been pulled from the wreckage by rescuers.
Bernardo Arevalo, the president of Guatemala, announced an indeterminate time of national mourning and expressed his sadness at the incident.
“Today is a difficult day for the Guatemalan nation,” he stated.
According to the fire department, the bus’s driver lost control, slammed into a number of small cars, and then fell off the cliff.
Carlos Hernandez of the department told reporters, “The bus continued to travel, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 meters (65 feet) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river.”
Images from AFPTV showed lines of firefighters carrying bodies up the slope on stretchers after being dragged from the trash-filled, murky waters.
The bus was traveling from the hamlet of San Agustin Acasaguastlan in the El Progreso department, which is roughly 90 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of Guatemala City, according to the local media.
The bus was 30 years old, according to an early examination, but it still had a valid operating license, said Communications Minister Miguel Angel Diaz.
He said police were investigating if the bus was overcrowded with people and that the cause of the early-morning mishap was yet unknown.
In Central and South America, traffic accidents frequently result in dozens of fatalities.
A bus in Peru went off a cliff onto a beach north of the capital Lima in January 2018, killing fifty-two persons.
In March 2015, a tourist bus catastrophe in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, claimed the lives of 54 persons.
