50-plus killed in Peru bus crash on ‘Devil’s Curve’
Searchers struggle among wave-blasted rocks at foot of cliff
Peruvian rescue workers and investigators continued the arduous search for bodies and answers Wednesday at the grisly site where a tractor-trailer slammed into a bus on a stretch of mountain road known as “Devil’s Curve.”
The death toll rose to 51 people in Tuesday’s crash. Six survivors were taken to hospitals.
Police Chief Víctor Rucoba said no highway signs in the area of Tuesday’s crash warned drivers of the perilous curve where the truck rammed the bus down a rocky cliff to a beach more than 260 feet below.
The wreck occurred in a remote area of Pasamayo, about 45 miles north of Lima. The two-lane, Pacific Ocean road — used only by trucks and buses — is one of the nation’s most dangerous. Transportation Minister Bruno Giuffra said buses could be banned from the section of road, and plans are underway to build a third lane.
Wednesday, workers sawed though the bus frame to extract bodies while heavy waves crashed on the beach around them. National Police Col. Dino Escudero Alcántara said the area was inaccessible by land, so emergency responders were helicoptered down to the site or arrived by boat.
Teams picked their way along craggy rocks near the beach where the battered bus rested upside down. Some survivors and the bodies of victims were helicoptered out. A Peruvian navy ship assisted rescue workers in the race to clear the scene ahead of the rising tides.
Police Col. Franklin Barreto said investigators were reviewing initial reports that both vehicles were traveling at a high rate of speed at the time of the crash. The driver of the truck was held for questioning.
The bus was owned by Transportes San Martin de Porres. Luis Martinez, a spokesman for the company, said the driver was experienced and had an assistant on board. Martinez did not indicate whether the duo survived. The bus underwent an inspection before the trip, he said.
The bus was carrying more than 50 passengers from Huacho, 100 miles north Lima, to Peru’s capital when it was struck by a tractor-trailer shortly before noon.
Many of the passengers were returning to Lima after celebrating the New Year’s holiday with family outside the city.
The serpentine road where the accident happened has no safety fences and is often laced with heavy fog coming off the nearby ocean, according to dangerousroads.org, which lists the roadway as “extremely dangerous.”
Traffic accidents are common along Peru’s roadways: More than 2,600 people were killed in 2016. Peru’s deadliest traffic crash on record happened in 2013 when a makeshift bus carrying 51 Quechua Indians back from a party in the southeastern region of the country fell off a cliff into a river, killing everyone on board.
Police Chief Víctor Rucoba said no highway signs in the area of Tuesday’s crash warned drivers of the perilous curve.