By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
GUATEMALA CITY (Worthy News) – Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo declared three days of national mourning Monday after over 50 people died and others were injured in a bus accident on Monday morning on the outskirts of Guatemala City.
While expressing his “condolences,” he also deployed the Central American nation’s army and disaster agency to assist in response efforts.
The accident happened Monday when the bus veered off a highway bridge into a polluted ravine in Guatemala City, killing at least 51 people and trapping survivors, a spokesperson for the city’s fire department confirmed.
The densely packed bus was traveling on a busy route into Guatemala’s capital from San Agustin Acasaguastlan.
It then plunged about 20 meters (60 feet) from Puente Belice, a highway bridge that crosses a road and creek, according to investigators.
The spokesman, Carlos Hernandez, told the media that the bodies of “36 men and 15 women had been sent to a provincial morgue” set up for the accident.
Images shared by the fire department on social media showed the bus partially submerged in wastewater and surrounded by victims’ bodies.
The disaster underscored broader concerns about traffic accidents, including in December 2019 when at least 21 people, including nine minors, were killed and a dozen wounded in a crash between a trailer truck and a passenger bus in eastern Guatemala.
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