At least 26 dead in Peru after bus plummets into ravine

A bus plummeted into a ravine in southern Peru Tuesday, killing at least 26 people, according to police in the Andean country plagued by deadly road accidents.

Another 14 people were injured in the early-morning crash, highway safety official Jhonny Valderrama told AFP, updating an earlier toll of 21 dead and 20 wounded.

The bus with more than 40 occupants was headed from Lima to the Andean region of Ayacucho when it veered off a cliff about 200 meters (656 feet) high.

Injured people, including the two co-drivers of the bus, were taken to hospitals as rescue teams worked to recover bodies from the wreckage in a hard-to-reach area.

Next-of-kin waited desperate for news outside the Mariscal Hospital in Ayacucho, where some of the injured were taken.

“We don’t know if my brother is in the hospital or dead. All the roads are full of holes, the government does not do any maintenance,” one of them, Juan Ayquipa, told RPP radio.

Accidents are frequent on Peru’s often winding, mountainous roads due to speeding, poor road upkeep, a lack of traffic signs and lax enforcement of driving rules.

Last year, the country of 34 million people registered more than 3,100 deaths from more than 87,000 traffic accidents.

Seventeen people died in a similar bus crash on the same road in May.

“I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones,” Transport Minister Raul Perez told reporters.
The cause of the latest accident has not been established.

Seventy percent of road accidents in Peru are due to human factors such as driver incompetence or fatigue, according to official data. (BSS/AFP)