Authorities have arrested the driver of a bus that caused a three-bus pile-up that killed 13 people on the Mexico City-Pachuca highway Monday night.

México state Attorney General Alejandro Gómez Sánchez said the suspect is believed responsible for colliding with the other two buses, which had stopped on the shoulder to allow passengers to board.

“We have now arrested one of the drivers, apparently the one who hit the other two vehicles,” said Gómez. The other two drivers fled the scene.

Gómez said the dead were being turned over to family members while the 29 people who were injured, 19 men and 10 women, had been taken to various hospitals in Mexico City and México state for treatment.

“It’s clearly a terrible accident,” he added.

The crash occurred when the driver who was arrested allegedly attempted to pass other vehicles by driving on on the shoulder of the highway.

Passengers aboard his bus have claimed that he smelled of alcohol, that he was talking on the phone at the time of the accident and was driving too fast, but none of the claims have been confirmed.

One of those passengers was a 23-year-old student who was sitting on a bench next to the driver because all the seats were occupied. She was flung through the windshield by the impact of the collision and was still conscious when she landed on the road.

The biology student at the National Autonomous University called her parents on her cell phone after dragging herself away from the scene, thinking there might be an explosion due to the strong smell of gasoline.

She was hospitalized with various injuries but they proved minor and she was released a few hours later.

Source: El Universal (sp)