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14 February 2025
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56 dead after Guatemala bus plunges into ravine
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On the early morning of Monday, 10 February 2025, a bus veered off a bridge and fell into the Las Vacas River, in the Zone 6, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Guatemala. The crash killed at least 54 people and injured nine others. At around 04h20 (GMT-6), a densely packed bus, an extra-urban transport unit owned by Transportes Tineca Sociedad Anónima and carrying more than 70 passengers, was going into Guatemala City from El Progreso Department, when it collided with other vehicles and fell approximately 20 metres off of Puente Belice, a highway bridge that crosses over a road in Las Vacas River, a sewage-polluted river in the capital.
According to Guatemala City Fire Department spokesman Carlos Hernández, the crash killed 52 of the victims at the scene and four others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital. An unclear number of passengers were seriously injured.
Murky waters
The fire department said the driver apparently lost control of the bus and collided with several small vehicles before plunging over the precipice. "The bus kept going, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 meters (65 feet) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river," the department's Carlos Hernandez told reporters.
AFPTV images showed lines of firefighters passing bodies pulled from the murky waters, which were filled with trash, up the slope on stretchers. "We're having a hard time with the rescue work," said firefighter Luis Quintanilla. "We've been underwater for more than three hours trying to rescue the body of an apparently male person who is trapped between the twisted metal of the bus," he said.
Eyewitnesses alleged seeing the vehicle hit two cars and a guardrail before fell into the ravine. Local media reported the bus had been crowded with students, commuters and people on their way to the capital for medical appointments. CCTV footage showed the bus traveling at high speed moments before the impact.
Road accidents leading to high numbers of casualties have been common in Latin America in recent years, especially involving buses: in January 2018, 51 people were killed in Peru when a bus carrying 57 passengers went over a cliff after being struck by a tractor trailer while en route from Huacho to Lima; in March 2015, a tourist bus fell into a ravine in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, causing 54 deaths; on February 8, two days prior to the accident in Guatemala City, a collision between a bus and a trailer truck on the Escárcega-Villahermosa highway in Mexico resulted in 41 fatalities.
Sources: Associated Press, BBC, France 24
According to Guatemala City Fire Department spokesman Carlos Hernández, the crash killed 52 of the victims at the scene and four others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital. An unclear number of passengers were seriously injured.
Murky waters
The fire department said the driver apparently lost control of the bus and collided with several small vehicles before plunging over the precipice. "The bus kept going, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 meters (65 feet) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river," the department's Carlos Hernandez told reporters.
AFPTV images showed lines of firefighters passing bodies pulled from the murky waters, which were filled with trash, up the slope on stretchers. "We're having a hard time with the rescue work," said firefighter Luis Quintanilla. "We've been underwater for more than three hours trying to rescue the body of an apparently male person who is trapped between the twisted metal of the bus," he said.
Eyewitnesses alleged seeing the vehicle hit two cars and a guardrail before fell into the ravine. Local media reported the bus had been crowded with students, commuters and people on their way to the capital for medical appointments. CCTV footage showed the bus traveling at high speed moments before the impact.
Road accidents leading to high numbers of casualties have been common in Latin America in recent years, especially involving buses: in January 2018, 51 people were killed in Peru when a bus carrying 57 passengers went over a cliff after being struck by a tractor trailer while en route from Huacho to Lima; in March 2015, a tourist bus fell into a ravine in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, causing 54 deaths; on February 8, two days prior to the accident in Guatemala City, a collision between a bus and a trailer truck on the Escárcega-Villahermosa highway in Mexico resulted in 41 fatalities.
Sources: Associated Press, BBC, France 24
