Mexico bus-truck crash leaves 43 dead

XALAPA, Mexico — A truck crashed into a passenger bus Friday in Mexico's eastern Veracruz state, killing 43 and injuring around 20 others, officials said. "In total, 43 people died in this accident" near the town of Alamo, Veracruz government spokeswoman Gina Dominguez told Milenio television late morning. The bus was traveling from the port of Coatzacoalcos to the northern border state of Coahuila when the crash occurred at around 4:30 am (0930 GMT) in the north of Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As rescue workers recovered bodies from the wreckage, officials organized the transfer of the injured to hospitals in the nearby port city of Tuxpan. "The first report we have, which we need to confirm with investigators, is that the truck's trailer came loose and hit the bus," Dominguez said. The bus passengers were agricultural workers traveling to work, according to local newspaper El Diario del Golfo, citing witnesses, on its website. Another collision between a passenger bus and a truck on a road in Jalisco state, western Mexico, left 36 hurt and one dead Friday, a state civil protection official told AFP, without giving further details. On April 5, 14 sugar cane workers died and nine were hurt when the bus they were traveling in crashed into a tree and overturned, also in Jalisco. Around 24,000 people die from road accidents in Mexico each year, according to insurance companies -- a figure almost double the annual drug violence death toll. Fri 20 April 2012 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iRAW2whNRnb_nH6H3QCAvvK4bi5w?docId=CNG.f07951d248e08c101c9eefe7c8769715.81