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

19 people have been killed in a horror crash after a truck carrying corn crashed into a passenger bus in Mexico.

Officials adjusted the death toll after initially reporting 24 deaths, citing information from first responders, while six others were injured after 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 transporting corn, became detached from a tractor when the passenger bus hit it, causing it to veer off the road and into a deep ravine.

The attorney general’s office said it was “investigating to arrest the driver” of the tractor-trailer.

The bus plunged into a deep ravine in Mexico’s central state of Zacatecas

Authorities work at the scene of a passenger bus accident that killed several people and injured others while traveling on the highway from Nayarit to Chihuahua, in Piedra Gorda, Mexico, October 26

Efforts were underway on Saturday morning to recover some of the bodies that fell 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 as rescuers worked to recover the bodies.

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

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

No immigrants were among the victims, according to the attorney general’s office.

Traffic accidents in Mexico have increased since 2020, when there were just over 300,000.

According to the national statistical institute Inegi, 381,048 accidents took place last year, resulting in 4,803 deaths and more than 90,000 injuries.

It comes after an April crash that killed 14 people and injured 31 others in Mexico.

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

The attorney general’s office said it was “investigating to arrest the driver” of the tractor-trailer

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

Injured people were rushed to hospital in ‘code red’, meaning the death toll is likely to continue rising.

According to local media, the passengers on the bus traveled from Guanajuato to the Chalma Shrine for religious reasons.

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

Nearly fifty people are believed to have been on board when disaster struck on a highway in the municipality of Elota, near the port city of Mazatland in the north.

The bus was traveling from the city of Guadalajara, in the western state of Jalisco, to Los Mochis in Sinaloa.

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