Vehicle headed toward capital city fell 20 metres into polluted ravine, leaving people trapped in wreckage. At least 51 people have died after a bus veered off a highway bridge into a polluted ravine in Guatemala City, leaving survivors trapped in the wreckage. The densely packed bus was carrying more than 70 people at the time of the accident early on Monday morning. It was traveling into the capital from the town of San Agustín Acasaguastlán when it plunged approximately 20 metres (66ft) from Puente Belice, a highway bridge that crosses over a road and creek.
A spokesperson, Carlos Hernandez, said the bodies of 36 men and 15 women had been sent to a provincial morgue set up for the accident. Images shared by the fire department on social media showed the bus partially submerged in wastewater surrounded by victims’ bodies. Guatemala’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, declared three days of national mourning and deployed the country’s army and disaster agency to assist response efforts.
“I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today woke up to heartbreaking news. Their pain is my pain,” Arévalo said on social media. The fire department said the driver lost control of the bus and collided with several small vehicles before plunging over the precipice. “The bus kept going, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 metres (65ft) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river,” the department’s Carlos Hernandez told reporters.
AFPTV images showed lines of firefighters passing bodies pulled from the murky waters, which were filled with trash, up the slope on stretchers. The communications minister, Miguel Angel Diaz, said an initial investigation showed that the bus was 30 years old but still had a license to operate. He said that the cause of the early morning accident was still unknown and that investigators were looking into whether the bus was overloaded with passengers.
