Nineteen people were killed and several others injured when a bus went over a cliff in Peru’s southern region of Huancavelica, RPP Noticias reported.
The accident occurred early Sunday in the mountainous district of Acoria. The bus reportedly belonged to a company called Expreso Antezana, which has an office in central Lima.
Two of the fatalities in the accident were children, local media reported. A two-year old girl was reportedly not injured in the crash.
A representative for the bus company said that some 30 people were also injured in the incident. Some of the injured were taken to hospitals in Huancayo, the capital of the neighboring Junin region.
Bus accidents on Peru’s rough mountain roads are common. Night buses are known to lose control and go over cliffs due to a drivers excessive speed or fatigue.
There have been several similar accidents so far this year, resulting in dozens of deaths. A bus on the Panamerican Highway in Cañete resulted in 19 deaths in July, while a previous accident in the central montane forest region of Chanchamayo only 10 days earlier claimed 45 lives. Accidents earlier in the year on mountain roads were equally deadly.
President Humala called for a broader commitment to road and public transport safety in June, following a report by the World Health Organization stating that Peru’s roads are among the most deadly in Latin America.
