Bus Plunges into Ravine in Guatemala, At Least 55 Dead

February 11, 2025 | 02:08 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - At least 55 people were killed and many more injured when a bus plunged into a ravine outside Guatemala City, Guatemalan officials said, in one of Latin America’s worst bus accidents in years.

The bus was carrying about 70 people when it plunged into a sewage-contaminated river in Guatemala City, creating difficult conditions for rescuers trying to retrieve bodies.

“So far, 53 people have died at the scene,” prosecutor’s office spokesman Moises Ortiz told reporters.

Two other people died after they were treated, along with several others, at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, spokeswoman Marlyn Perez said.

Mynor Ruano, a spokesman for the city’s fire department, told reporters on Monday that efforts were underway “to rescue the passengers trapped” inside the wreckage.

The bodies of passengers recovered from the scene were taken to a makeshift morgue at a nearby community center, where some relatives feared the worst.

Rosa Lopez told reporters that four of her nephews were believed to have been on the bus.

“When we heard about the accident on the news, we immediately came here,” the 48-year-old said.

Injured passengers were taken to hospital, many of them in serious condition.

The bus was traveling on a busy route in and out of the Guatemalan capital on Monday when it plunged from the Puente Belice, a highway bridge that spans a highway and a river.

Footage shared by firefighters on social media showed rescue workers pulling victims out of the abyss. Images showed the bus flipped over.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo declared three days of national mourning and deployed the army and disaster agency to help with the response.

“I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who learned today of this heartbreaking news,” he said. “Their pain is my pain.”

The president of Guatemala’s Congress also released a statement on social media lamenting the “tragic accident” in which “more than four dozen Guatemalans lost their lives in search of their daily bread.”

Guatemalan Mayor Ricardo Quinonez said on social media that emergency services had been deployed while traffic police worked to establish alternative routes in the affected area.

(Picture above) The body of a victim of a deadly bus crash in Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 10, 2025, are being evacuated. Reuters/Cristina Chiquin

Firefighters said the driver apparently lost control of the bus and collided with several small vehicles before plunging into the ravine.

"The bus kept going, breaking through an iron fence and plunging into a 20-meter (65-foot) ravine until it reached a river contaminated with sewage," Carlos Hernandez of the department told reporters.

AFPTV footage showed lines of firefighters passing bodies pulled from the murky, garbage-strewn waters, climbing the slope on stretchers.

"We are having a hard time in the rescue effort," said firefighter Luis Quintanilla.

"We have been underwater for more than three hours trying to rescue the body of a man trapped between the twisted metal of the bus," he said.

The bus was traveling to Guatemala City from the town of San Agustin Acasaguastlan in the El Progreso region, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) to the northeast, authorities said.

Communications Minister Miguel Angel Diaz said initial investigations showed the bus was 30 years old but still had a license to operate.

He said the cause of the early morning crash was still unknown and investigators were looking into whether the bus was overloaded.

The prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into the crash.

Road accidents that result in dozens of fatalities are common in Central and South America.

In January 2018, 52 people were killed in Peru when a bus plunged off a cliff onto a beach north of the capital, Lima.

In Brazil, 54 people were killed in March 2015 in a tour bus crash in the southern state of Santa Catarina.

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