Bus Plunges off Bridge in Guatemala City, Killing at Least 53

At least 53 people were killed on Monday when a bus crossing a bridge in Guatemala City collided with several other vehicles and then plunged into a ravine, according to government officials.
The bus was lodged in a hard-to-reach area and submerged in a river of sewage. Luggage and personal belongings could be seen scattered across the banks of the water.
The number of dead was expected to rise from the crash, officials said.
The public prosecutor’s office, which released the death toll in a statement, said it was investigating the crash, which occurred at about 4:30 a.m.
The driver of the public bus may have lost control of the vehicle because of a mechanical failure, said Carlos Hernández, a spokesman for Guatemala City’s fire department. The bus then collided with two other vehicles.
Mr. Hernández cautioned, however, that the investigation into the accident was still underway. Local media outlets published security-camera footage of the bus, which appeared to be going at a high rate of speed right before the collision.
News of the crash shook the capital and set off a frantic search for information across many households.
When Jeison Galindo, 23, a nursing student, learned that a bus had crashed on the route his 57-year-old father-in-law takes everyday to get to work as a security guard, he tried to call him but could not get through.
“I started watching videos on Facebook when I saw a deceased man who looked like him and his clothing matched,” Mr. Galindo said. He rushed to the scene of the crash to determine his father-in-law’s fate.
“We came here and saw his name among the deceased,” he said mournfully in an interview at the accident site. “Now we are waiting to receive his body.”
Guatemala’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, declared three days of national mourning and ordered the army to mobilize and support rescue efforts. “I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today woke up to heartbreaking news,” Mr. Arévalo said in a televised address to the nation. “Their pain is my pain.”
On Monday afternoon, hours after the crash, a reporter saw 15 bodies pulled from the depths of the ravine within an hour, emergency workers carrying the corpses on gurneys covered by white tarps. The rescuers struggled to climb up the steep slope, then carried the bodies to a temporary morgue that had been set up in a house on a hill overlooking the crash scene.
A crowd of about 200 had gathered, made up families and friends of the victims. They anxiously awaited news of their loved ones, some sobbing and hugging one another as they watched gurney after gurney go by.
Rosa Amabilia García, 47, looked on as the rescuers before her transported the corpses. She was searching for her niece and her niece’s three children, ages 10, 12 and 15.
Ms. Amabilia’s niece, Edna Mariela Martínez, 28, took the bus from the outskirts of Guatemala City every day to a school in the capital, where she worked as a teacher. Her children were traveling with her when the bus crashed. All fell to their deaths.
“They just told us that all four of them died, and now we are just waiting for their bodies to be returned to us,” Ms. Amabilia said, sobbing.
On the exterior of the temporary morgue, rescue workers had taped up a long neon-green sheet of paper bearing the names of the dead identified so far. Members of the crowd craned their necks, straining to read the list. Every time a new name was added, guttural cries of grief emerged from the crowd.
Nuns tried to offer comfort to the victims’ families and friends, and offered their prayers.
Once identified, the bodies were handed directly to the families to be taken to funeral homes. The unidentified corpses were transferred to the city morgue, officials said.
Source link