Image: Wikimedia commons
Mixteca region of Mexico.
A passenger bus lost control and plunged into a 75-foot (25-meter) deep ravine in southern Mexico on Wednesday, killing at least 27 passengers, an official said.
The accident occurred in the indigenous region of Mixteca in the southern state of Oaxaca.
The state’s interior minister, Jesús Romero, said 27 people died in the accident, including a one-and-a-half-year-old baby. He said that about 20 people were injured in the accident, some of them in serious condition.
Romero said the bus driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle and fall into a rut.
“Lack of skill and fatigue seem to have caused the accident,” Romero told a local television station.
Pictures released by the police indicate that the bus overturned, completely destroying the passenger compartment.
The bus departed from Mexico City to take passengers to a number of small and isolated mountain villages in the impoverished Mixteca region.
The road, personal effects, bundles and baskets scattered among the rubble indicate that the victims were people working in manual labor in the capital and were returning to their hometowns when the accident occurred.
