Horror as 19 people killed after cargo truck carrying corn crashes into passenger bus in Mexico

By Taryn Pedler 15:21 27 Oct 2024, updated 16:54 27 Oct 2024

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A horror crash has killed 19 people after a cargo truck carrying corn smashed into a passenger bus in Mexico.

Officials adjusted the death toll after initially reporting 24 deaths, citing information from first responders, while six more have been left injured following the incident.

Victims were pulled from a ravine after the bus, carrying 25 people, crashed and overturned on a highway in Mexico's central state of Zacatecas on Saturday.

According to local reports, the trailer, which had been carrying corn, had come loose from a tractor when the passenger bus hit it, forcing it off the road and into a deep ravine.

The attorney general's office said it was 'carrying out investigations to arrest the driver' of the tractor-trailer.

Efforts were ongoing on Saturday morning to recover some of the bodies that had fallen into a ravine, a local government official who asked not to be named told Reuters.

Images shared on social media showed rescue teams and security forces, including military personnel, securing the area while rescuers worked to recover the bodies.

The bus was headed for Ciudad Juarez, a city on the US-Mexico border in the state of Chihuahua.

The highway was closed to traffic, senior Zacatecas state official Rodrigo Reyes said, adding that army, National Guard and civil protection forces were deployed.

The victims did not include migrants, according to the attorney general's office.

Traffic accidents in Mexico have been on the rise since 2020, when there were just over 300,000.

Last year saw 381,048 accidents, leading to 4,803 deaths and more than 90,000 injuries, according to the Inegi national statistics institute.

It comes after a crash in April which claimed the lives of 14 and left 31 others injured in Mexico.

The bus overturned on the El Capulín-Chalma highway on the outskirts of the capital with images from the time showing a large white bus laying on its side, blocking the roadway.

Wounded individuals were rushed to hospital in 'code red' - meaning the death toll was likely to continue to climb.

The passengers on the bus were travelling from Guanajuato to the sanctuary of Chalma for religious reasons, according to local media.

And in January, at least 19 people died and 22 were injured in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a freight lorry.

Almost 50 people were said to have been on board when disaster struck on a highway in the township of Elota, near the port city of Mazatland in northern.

The bus had been travelling from the city of Guadalajara, in the western state of Jalisco, to Los Mochis in Sinaloa.

The lorry reportedly overturned when the bus drove into it, causing both vehicles to catch fire.

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