At least 21 killed, 29 injured in Mexico bus crash

A bus accident early Friday in the western Mexican state of Nayarit left 24 dead and 14 injured, authorities said.

The original casualty report spoke of 21 dead and 29 injured.

First responders initially counted 17 bodies, but discovered four additional victims when the bus was lifted, while three injured passengers died en route to the hospital, sources in the state Attorney General's Office said.

The accident occurred around 4:00 a.m. on a stretch of highway between the towns of Puente de Chapalilla and Tequepexpan, Nayarit government spokesman Sergio Cañedo told Efe.

The bus was carrying a group headed to the beach in the village of Rincon de Guayabitos when the predawn crash occurred, Omar Landazuri, a duty officer for the Nayarit State Civil Protection Service, told AFP. "The bus overturned and began to roll down a ravine, ejecting people along the way," Landazuri added, saying that many of the victims died from the battering they received.

Injured survivors were taken to three hospitals in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit. Residents of a community in Chihuahua pooled their resources to charter the bus for the beach excursion, Nayarit officials said.

Schools let out in Mexico two weeks ago and the country's highways are crowded with families en route to vacation spots.

Landazuri said the bus, owned by Golden Express Tours, had been rented by the group from the northwestern Chihuahua state for a trip to the Pacific coast.

Friday's crash brings the number of serious bus accidents in Mexico to four this year. In the most serious recent incident, on April 20, a truck smashed into a bus transporting farm workers in the eastern state of Veracruz, killing 43 people.

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.

Saturday 21 July 2012 

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