Eight people died, including a foreign tourist, and 19 were injured after a bus collided with a dump truck on a highway near Cancún, Quintana Roo, on Sunday.
The bus, which was operated by the ADO bus line, was carrying 40 passengers on the Kantunilkin-Cancún highway from Mérida to Cancún at about 10:30 a.m. near the town of El Tintal, 73 kilometers west of Cancún, when the accident occurred.
The Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office confirmed that five men and three women died. At least one of the fatalities was a foreign tourist, but the office didn’t reveal their nationality. Two children were injured — one seriously — and two French tourists, a German citizen and a Pakistani citizen were also hurt, the newspaper Reforma reported.
The accident occurred near section 4 of the Maya Train project that is under construction.
Authorities said Monday morning that the driver of the truck had been arrested. Witnesses say the truck drove on to the highway and into the path of the bus, whose driver didn’t have time to stop to avoid the collision.
The governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, offered his condolences to those affected. “Attentive and following the accident that occurred on the Cancún-Mérida highway, where a passenger bus was involved … authorities are present and are helping the wounded. Our solidarity with the families of the victims,” he wrote on Twitter.
With reports from Reforma and El Universal
