Veracruz, (Mexico): An overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier, plunging more than 200 meters into a ravine. Fifty-seven people were killed, including a 13-year-old boy.
Just three people survived yesterday's plunge from the highway, considered one of the most dangerous in Mexico. Two were in grave condition and one, an 8-year-old girl, was conscious but had suffered multiple fractures, said Ranulfo Marquez, deputy director of civil protection for Veracruz state, where the crash occurred.
Rosa Elvira Gonzalez, an official from the state Attorney General office, originally said 63 bodies were recovered from the ravine and four other passengers died while being treated. Four children were originally thought tobe among those killed.
But Marquez said by phone late Monday that officials mistakenly inflated the death toll after some of the victims taken by ambulance to three different hospitals were double-counted.
He said the dead had been identified as 29 women and 28 men, all of whom were Mexican citizens, and that most hailed from three communities in Tabasco state, which borders Veracruz. The driver was believed to be among those killed.
The bus, equipped to hold 46 passengers, was carrying 60, some of whom were standing. Federal Preventive Police Cmdr. Reinaldo Ascencio Cavazos said the owner of the bus was
detained for questioning.
Police did not immediately know what caused the crash, but said the driver was seen attempting to maneuver into a lane designed for vehicles that have brake or other mechanical failure as the bus descended a winding mountain road.
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