Peru bus crash kills all 51 on board

Authorities say 14 children among dead after vehicle returning from party plunged 200 metres down ravine

theguardian.com, Associated Press in Lima, Sunday 13 October 2013

Bodies are lined up for identification after a bus crash in Peru killed 51 people,
including 14 children. Photograph: Associated Press/La Republica newspaper

A makeshift bus carrying 51 people back from a party in south-eastern Peru has plunged off a cliff into a river, killing everyone on board including 14 children.

The accident happened as the red and yellow cargo truck made its way back from a party in the provincial capital of Santa Teresa, an area about 310 miles (500km) south-east of Lima. It went off the road and fell about 200 metres into a deep ravine, ending up in the Chaupimayo river below.

Rescuers equipped with little more than flashlights spent the night searching without success for survivors amid the twisted steel and large boulders, pulling bodies from the water. Authorities said victims were found as far as 100 metres from the impact site, suggesting they were thrown from the vehicle.

"We haven't found a single survivor," said firefighter Captain David Taboada, who was leading the rescue operation.

Firefighters had said 52 people died in the accident but later in the day Santa Rita police issued a press release saying the official death toll was 51, including 14 children.

The cause of the accident had not been determined, Taboada said, adding that the vehicle was "coming from a party in Santa Teresa at which a lot of alcohol was consumed".

Firefighters were placing the recovered bodies on a soccer field above where the crash took place. Throughout the following day relatives of the victims arrived to identify their loved ones.

Fedia Castro, mayor of the district where Santa Teresa is located, told Canal N television that rural farmers must rely on informal forms of transport, such as this cargo truck, because no public buses exist in the area.

The high-altitude roads of the Peruvian Andes are notorious for bus plunges, with poor farmers comprising many of the victims. Last year, more than 4,000 people were killed in such accidents.