Mexico City.- The death toll from an accident involving a passenger bus this Thursday on a highway in Nayarit, a western state of Mexico, rose to 18, including 5 foreigners, reported the state’s Secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection.
As reported by the authorities to the local press, among the deceased are three people from India, one from the Dominican Republic and one more whose country of origin is unknown.
“Personnel of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection through the State Police and Fire Department of Nayarit, SEDENA (Secretary of National Defense), National Guard, Investigation Agency of the FGE (State Attorney General) and Grupo AMEC managed to carry out the extraction of 14 adults and 3 minors, without vital signs,” the agency specified in a bulletin.
The state Public Security Secretariat also indicated that a total of 22 people, including drivers, were taken to medical emergencies, and only one person did not present injuries.
According to the first reports, the event occurred in the Libramiento Norte de Tepic, the state capital, on kilometer 26+500 at the height of the town of Barranca Blanca.
The Elite line passenger bus, which was heading to the city of Tijuana, left the asphalt tape and fell into a ravine, the agency added.
While the governor of Nayarit, Miguel Ángel Navarro, stated that he is already working with the federal government to deal with the accident.
“I extend my deepest condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives. We will continue to care for the people affected by this incident for as long as it takes for them to recover their health,” the state president said on his social media.
Road accidents have gained notoriety this year in Mexico, where at least 29 people died last month in the southern state of Oaxaca when a passenger bus rolled over.
In Mexico, an average of 40 people a day died from car accidents and the number of injured rose 28% annually in 2022, one of the deadliest years in history, according to the latest report from the World Resources Institute Mexico (WRI, for its acronym in English).
