44 dead as Peru bus plunges into ravine

Rescue workers at the scene of the crash site in Arequipa. The double-decker bus had veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine.
Rescue workers at the scene of the crash site in Arequipa. The double-decker bus had veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine.
Rescuers used military helicopters to airlift 11 seriously injured passengers to the regional capital Arequipa. The authorities did not specify the number of injured.
Rescuers used military helicopters to airlift 11 seriously injured passengers to the regional capital Arequipa. The authorities did not specify the number of injured.

LIMA • A double-decker bus veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine in southern Peru on Wednesday, killing at least 44 people.

The bus tumbled 80m down a jagged slope from the Pan-American highway - Peru's main motorway - in the southern region of Arequipa.

Arequipa police chief, General Walter Ortiz, "confirms 44 deaths," the interior ministry said on its Twitter, updating an earlier toll of 35.

The police chief said 45 people were registered as passengers on the bus, but the ministry said this did not match the number of people killed or injured. However, interprovincial buses in Peru frequently pick-up and drop-off passengers en route, resulting in discrepancies in the original passenger list.

Amid the confusion, the authorities did not specify the number of people injured. It was not known if the driver was among them.

The accident happened around 1.30am local time. Rescue teams, including firefighters and police, "have been working since dawn, coordinating the transfer and care of the injured," Arequipa governor Yamila Osorio wrote on her Twitter account.

"The on-duty prosecutor is carrying out the removal of the corpses, and experts from the police traffic accident investigation section are investigating the causes of the accident," traffic police chief Colonel Jorge Castillo said.

The injured were taken to hospital in the city of Camana, some 57km from the accident site.

Rescuers used military helicopters to airlift 11 seriously injured passengers to the regional capital Arequipa, Civil Defence chief Jacqueline Choque said.

The bus left the coastal town of Chala for Arequipa about four hours before the accident.

Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski sent his condolences to the victims' families on Twitter.

"All procedures have been activated for the immediate support of the rescue and the transfer of the victims to the nearest health centres," he said.

It was the second major accident on Peru's roads this year. On Jan 2, a bus crashed into a ravine in the country's central coastal area, leaving 52 dead. The authorities attributed that accident to the driver of a truck that crossed into the bus' path from the opposite lane of the Pasamayo highway.

The toll from the Pasamayo crash matched that of an October 2013 accident in Cusco, south-east of Lima.

Nearly 2,700 people died in traffic accidents in Peru in 2016, according to the latest available official figures.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 23, 2018, with the headline 44 dead as Peru bus plunges into ravine. Subscribe