At least 18 killed as truck, bus collide in northeastern Mexico
Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, Sep 10 (EFE).- At least 18 people died and others were injured after a passenger bus collided with a fuel trailer on the Ciudad Victoria-Monterrey highway, in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, state authorities reported Saturday.
Tamaulipas’ attorney general’s office said in a statement that 18 people died in a collision between a bus and a truck that was carrying a container filled with fuel that caused both vehicles to catch fire.
The accident occurred at 4:30 am on Saturday in the town of San Francisco in the central Hidalgo state.
The bus was carrying passengers from Hidalgo and headed to the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, according to initial reports.
According to versions, the fully occupied 40-seat passenger bus collided with the double trailer truck that was transporting a flammable chemical material called varsol, a mixture of aliphatic hydrocarbons derived from petroleum. All 18 killed were passengers aboard the bus.
After the accident, members of the National Guard and the Secretariat of National Defense as well as Civil Protection personnel arrived at the site to contain the fire engulfing the vehicles.
An individual, presumably the operator of the cargo truck, who apparently fled the scene, is being investigated to determine if he was responsible for the accident, Tamaulipas’ secretariat of public security reported.
The Prosecutor’s Office said that the crash was caused by the possible detachment of the container carrying the chemical being transported to Ciudad Victoria.
It is presumed that the impact of the collision caused an explosion that triggered the fire.
A section of Federal Highway 85 was closed to traffic after the accident and will possibly be opened only once the debris and the remains of the victims are removed.
The Hidalgo state government ordered the release of resources to support the families of the victims, some from the Huejutla community, and has also offered transportation to Tamaulipas to carry out the legal procedures needed to be completed to recover their remains.
The Hidalgo authorities are also informing the victims’ relatives through social media about the alternatives that have been established to assist them. EFE
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