Washington: A tragic accident in eastern Mexico has resulted in the deaths of at least eight individuals, with 27 others injured, following a collision between a passenger bus and a semi-trailer truck. The incident occurred early Friday on the Perote-Xalapa highway near Los Molinos in Veracruz state, where the victims included three men, four women, and one minor, according to the Veracruz State Attorney General’s Office.
The Xalapa regional prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation to uncover the cause of the crash. Reports suggest that the ADO bus, en route from Mexico City to Xalapa, may have collided with the truck due to the bus driver’s failure to see it in time.
Veracruz Governor Rocio Nahle announced on social media that the state is collaborating with the federal government to assist the affected passengers and their families.
This incident follows another traffic accident just a day earlier in Michoacan, where at least six people were killed. In that case, a pickup truck carrying three young people collided with a car carrying a family on the Los Reyes-Jacona highway near La Ventilla, as reported by local officials.
Jose Luis Alcazar, the municipal president of Tocumbo, expressed condolences to the families impacted by the tragedy, stating, “We join in the pain of the families affected by this irreparable loss during this time of sadness.” The site of the Michoacan accident was secured by local police while investigations by the General Prosecutor’s Office were conducted.
The World Health Organization has ranked Mexico as the seventh country globally for traffic accidents and third in Latin America for fatalities resulting from such incidents this year.