A bus accident in Mexico killed 17 passengers, including three children, and injured 23 after the driver fell asleep and lost control of the vehicle as it fell down a 50-meter ramp
- A bus crash near Tepic, Mexico, killed 17 passengers and injured 23 on Thursday
- The bus was en route from Mexico City to Tijuana when the driver lost control
- The vehicle went through a guardrail and plunged into a 50 meter deep ravine
At least 17 passengers, including three children, were killed on Thursday after a bus drove into a 50-meter-deep hill in the western Mexican state of Nayarit.
Authorities reported that 23 people, including the driver and co-pilot, were injured and taken to the area hospital in the town of Tepic.
The driver, identified as Francisco, survived the crash and told investigators he fell asleep at the wheel and eventually lost control of the vehicle before it crashed through a guardrail.
He was arrested as part of the investigation.
A bus accident near the western Mexican city of Tepic killed 17 passengers, including three children, on Thursday. Authorities said 23 people were also injured and treated in area hospitals
Of the 23 passengers injured, four were identified as Indian nationals. A man from the Dominican Republic also survived the crash
The bus, part of the Elite passenger line, left Mexico City on Wednesday.
It made a brief stop in the western city of Jalisco before continuing north and crashing near Barranca Blanca, north of Tepic.
The bus’s destination was Tijuana, the border town across from Southern California.
A Nayarit Fire Brigade source said there were six Indian citizens on the bus.
Two passengers sit on the sidewalk at the scene of Thursday morning’s crash near Tepic, Mexico, after 17 passengers died and 23 people were injured
The driver of the bus told investigators that he fell asleep at the wheel before losing control of the vehicle and crashing through a guardrail and falling into a 50-foot ravine.
An official list of survivors’ names published by Mexican newspaper El Financiero identified four of the Indian nationals as Rajan Singh, 21; Mandip Kumar, 22; Adama Kane, 46; and Hanidou Kane, whose age is unknown.
Victor Aibal, 49, from the Dominican Republic, was also injured.
Footage showed rescuers descending the slope in search of survivors.
Jorge Rodríguez, the secretary of security and civil protection for Nayarit state, told reporters that the rescue mission was “extremely difficult” due to the canyon’s depth.
Last month, another bus crash in the southern state of Oaxaca killed 29 people, and in February, another bus carrying migrants from South and Central America crashed in central Mexico, killing 17.