A bus careens into a gulch in southern Mexico, leaving 27 people dead
A passenger bus lost control and veered off the road and plunged into a 75-foot (25-meter-deep) trench in southern Mexico, killing at least 27 passengers.
MEXICO CITY — A passenger bus lost control and veered off the road and plunged into a 75-foot (25-meter-deep) trench in southern Mexico on Wednesday, killing at least 27 passengers, an official said.
The crash happened in the Mixteca area that is largely indigenous to the southern state of Oaxaca.
The state’s interior minister, Jesús Romero, said 27 people had died in the crash, including a 1-and-a-half-year-old child. He said about 20 people were injured in the accident, some very seriously.
Romero said the bus driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle and plunged into a ditch.
Speaking to a local TV station, Romero said: “It seems a lack of skill and fatigue caused the accident.
Photos released by police show the bus overturned, completely flattening the passenger compartment.
The bus departed from Mexico City to carry passengers to several small, remote mountain villages in the impoverished Mixteca region.
The route and property, packages and baskets scattered among the rubble, suggest that the victims were manual laborers in the capital and were returning to their hometowns when the accident occurred.
