Accidents At least 38 dead in bus crash in Brazil
At least 38 people were killed in a bus accident in south-eastern Brazil on Saturday. Nine other people were hospitalized with injuries, police said.
22.12.2024, 03:12
SDA
A fire department spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that many of the victims in the burnt-out bus were charred beyond recognition. Reliable information on the exact number of victims is therefore not yet possible. The cause of the accident initially varied.
The accident in the state of Minas Gerais was the worst accident on Brazil's federal highways since 2007, the federal traffic police told AFP. The authorities cited the possibility that a granite block had come loose from a truck in the opposite lane and hit the bus. The driver of the truck is said to have committed a hit-and-run.
Shortly after the accident, the fire department announced that a tire on the bus coming from São Paulo had burst near the town of Lajinha. The bus driver lost control of the vehicle as a result and collided with a truck. Another vehicle then hit the bus from behind, but the occupants of this vehicle survived the accident.
Bus possibly hit by chunks of stone
After questioning eyewitnesses, firefighters then said that the bus may also have been hit by a boulder in a landslide and then collided with the truck and burst into flames. According to the fire department, the bus driver and at least one child are among the dead.
The governor of Minas Gerais declared that he was committed to "ensuring that the families of the victims are cared for so that they can cope with this tragedy in the most humane way possible".
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and announced that he would pray for "the recovery of the survivors of this terrible tragedy".
It was only at the end of November that a bus accident occurred in the north-eastern state of Alagoas, killing 17 people. The bus plunged into a ravine in a remote mountainous region.
There was also a fatal bus accident in neighboring Bolivia. At least 13 people were killed and three injured there when a bus collided with a truck on Friday, according to the police. The accident occurred on a highway in the Bolivian Andes. According to initial findings, the truck driver lost control of his vehicle on the road from the capital La Paz to Oruro.
