Bus crash in Ecuador kills at least 24 people

Another 18 people were injured after a bus careened into another vehicle at high speed and overturned on a highway near Ecuador's capital.

Photo released by the Fire Brigade of Quito showing an ambulance at the scene of an accident where a bus crashed into another vehicle on the road between Pifo and Papallacta, 30 kilometres east of Quito, leaving at least 23 people dead and 20 injured, on August 14, 2018.
AFP

Photo released by the Fire Brigade of Quito showing an ambulance at the scene of an accident where a bus crashed into another vehicle on the road between Pifo and Papallacta, 30 kilometres east of Quito, leaving at least 23 people dead and 20 injured, on August 14, 2018.

At least 24 people were killed and 18 injured when an inter-country bus crashed outside Ecuador's capital Quito, emergency services said on Tuesday. Venezuelans and Colombians were among the dead, officials said.

The bus crashed into another vehicle some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Quito, the ECU911 office said.

The embassies of the foreign victims have been notified, the emergency service said.

Loading...

On Sunday, 12 people were killed and 30 injured when a bus carrying fans of Barcelona SC, Ecuador's most popular football club, ran off the highway and flipped.

Traffic accidents are among the leading causes of death in Ecuador. According to the watchdog group Justicia Vial, on average seven people are killed and some 80 people injured each day in traffic accidents.

And 96 percent of those accidents are due to human error, usually the driver's fault, according to the group's figures.

Route 6