Bus
At least 50 passengers were killed after a bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a ravine in Guatemala on Monday morning.
The bus was traveling on a busy section of highway outside Guatemala City when it plunged about 65 feet from Puente Belice, a bridge that crosses over a road and creek.
Images showed the bus partially submerged in wastewater surrounded by victims’ bodies.
The fire department rescued 15 passengers, who were rushed to area hospitals.
Footage on social media showed firefighters removing survivors from the bus and loading them on to stretchers at the scene.
The bodies of 36 men and 15 women were taken to a morgue set up for the accident, according to Guatemala City fire department spokesman, Carlos Hernández.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo lamented the accident in a post on social media.
‘The tragedy at the Puente Belice is a national pain that I deeply regret,’ he wrote on X.
‘I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today wake up to heartbreaking news. Their pain is my pain.’
Arévalo instructed the army and National Coordination for Disaster Reduction provide special assistance to the injured.
First responders remove the body of a survivor near a bus that slammed into a car and then plunged off a bridge in Guatemala City on Monday morning. At least 50 people have been confirmed dead and 15 were injured and rushed to area hospitals
Firefighters work at the scene of a bus that fell from a bridge in Guatemala City
Guatemala City Mayor Ricardo Quiñones urged companies to allow their employees to work from home and to reduce hours of operation for the day.
Quiñones stressed that doing so would slow down traffic on the heavily trafficked road and allow first responders to work faster.
The bus departed during the early hours of Monday from San Agustín Acasaguastlán, located 57 miles northeast in the department of El Progreso, and was carrying 75 passengers, fire department spokesman, Mynor Ruano, told reporters.
A surveillance video obtained by multiple local news outlets showed the coach entering the opposite lane and blowing past a red light at an intersection.
Prensa Latina reported that the bus collided with a car before it careened off the road.
Volunteer firefighters work at the scene of an accident in which a bus fell down a ravine in Guatemala City on Monday morning.
Guatemalan firefighters have recovered the bodies of 36 men and 15 women who died in a bus crash Monday
The sight of dead bodies strewn next to each other shook one of the first firefighters who arrived at the crash scene.
‘One is not really prepared to assimilate everything that we are experiencing at this difficult time because we are human,’ he said. ‘It is difficult. What we hope is to save lives.’
One male passenger was seen on a video responding to the commands of the first responders while he tapped his abdomen.
Another video showed several members of the fire department attempting to remove parts of the bus to remove the passengers who remained trapped.
The Guatemala City bus crash follows a September 2022 crash when 58 passengers were killed after a bus plummeted into the Selegua River in San Pedro Necta, a municipality in the department of Huehuetenango.
