Forty-four killed in Peru coach accident

A DOUBLE-DECKER bus veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine in southern Peru on Wednesday, killing at least 44 people.

The bus tumbled 80 metres down a jagged slope from the Pan-American highway – Peru’s main motorway – in the southern region of Arequipa.

Arequipa police chief General Walter Ortiz“confirms 44 deaths”, the Interior Ministry said on its Twitter account.

Ortiz said 45 people were registered as passengers on the bus, but the ministry said this did not match the number of people killed or injured. But interprovincial buses in Peru frequently pick-up and drop-off passengers en route, resulting in discrepancies in the passenger list.

Amid the confusion, the authorities did not specify the number of people injured.

The accident happened in darkness around 1:30am. Rescue teams including firefighters and police “have been working since dawn, coordinating the transfer and care of the injured”, Arequipa governor Yamila Osorio wrote on her Twitter account.

“The on-duty prosecutor is carrying out the removal of the corpses and experts from the police traffic accident investigation section are investigating the causes of the accident,” traffic police chief Colonel Jorge Castillo said.

It was the second major accident on Peru’s roads this year. On January 2, a bus crashed into a ravine in the country’s central coastal area, leaving 52 dead.

Authorities attributed that accident to the driver of a truck that crossed into the bus’s path from the opposite lane of the Pasamayo highway, which branches off the Pan-American highway.