Another bus accident in Peru’s southern region of Arequipa claimed more than 20 lives on Wednesday, Radioprogramas reported.
An interprovincial bus traveling in the mountainous sector of Quiscos, at Km 88 near Orcopampa, on the road to Puno, went off a 120-meter cliff, killing at least 24 people.
The accident occurred just two weeks after 15 people were killed when a bus plunged over a 150-meter cliff, also in Arequipa, on the PanAmerican Highway between Arequipa and Camana.
The report on this week’s accident did not say how it occurred, although the most frequent causes of interprovincial bus accidents are poor vehicle maintenance or reckless driving at night or the early morning on mountain roads.
“The moment that we arrived, there were bodies outside and inside the bus,” Radioprogramas reported a police officer as saying. “Recovering [the bodies] is terrible, we’re still doing it.” The first photos showed that the roof of the bus had been ripped off in the fall.
The bus was reportedly owned by a company called Andares. It left the district of Orcopampa yesterday and was on route to the city of Arequipa. Forty-eight people were on board.
