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The ill-fated passenger bus was destined for Tijuana, the border town across from southern California.
Bus Accident In Mexico: At least 17 people, including six Indians, were killed when a passenger bus they were aboard plunged into a 164-foot-deep hillside in the western Mexican state of Nayarit early Thursday. The mishap has left 23 others injured.
The Daily Mail, quoting a source from Nayarit’s firefighting service reported that six Indian citizens had been aboard the bus, part of the Elite passenger line, which departed from Mexico City on Wednesday.
The ill-fated passenger bus was destined for Tijuana, the border town across from southern California.
An official list with the names of survivors published by the Mexican newspaper El Financiero identified four of the Indian nationals as Rajan Singh, 21; Mandip Kumar, 22; Adama Kane, 46; and Hanidou Kane, reported the British daily.
The driver of the bus, identified as Francisco, survived the crash and was taken into custody as part of the investigation. He is reported to have told investigators that he fell asleep behind the wheel and eventually lost control of the vehicle before it crashed through a guardrail.
Footage showed first responders trekking down the slope in search of survivors.
Jorge Rodríguez, the security and civil protection secretary for the state of Nayarit, told reporters that the rescue mission was “extremely difficult” because of how deep the ravine was, the Mail reported.
Last month, another bus crash in the southern state of Oaxaca left 29 people dead, and in February, a bus carrying migrants from South and Central America crashed in central Mexico, killing 17 people.
Meanwhile, the AP reported: “Many of the passengers on a bus that tumbled down a steep hillside in western Mexico, killing 18 and injuring nearly two dozen, were migrants headed for Tijuana at the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican authorities said.
The Nayarit state prosecutor’s office said it had not yet identified the dead from Thursday’s accident, but said they included 10 men, five women and three minors. Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said a Mauritanian citizen was among the deceased.
The prosecutor’s office did identify the 23 injured who were hospitalized. The National Immigration Institute said that among them were two Mauritanian and two Indian citizens. There was also a citizen from the Dominican Republic.
So-called extracontinental migrants have become increasingly common in recent years as they transit Mexico along with traditional migrants from Latin America. They generally fly to a country in Latin America that does not require a visa and then move north toward the U.S. border.
Around 3 a.m. Thursday the bus left the highway near the Nayarit state capital Tepic and tumbled about 40 meters down a steep hillside, according to the state prosecutor’s office. The bus driver has been detained and the preliminary investigation suggests the bus was driving too fast for the curvy road.”
Reuters reported: “At least 18 people died in western Mexico when a passenger bus plunged off a highway into a ravine early on Thursday, state officials said, adding the passengers were mostly foreigners and some were heading for the U.S. border.
En route to the northern border town of Tijuana, the bus had been carrying around 42 passengers, including citizens from India, Dominican Republic and African nations.
The bus driver has been detained, the Nayarit state government said in a statement, with authorities suspecting him of speeding round a bend in the road.
Officials said they were still working to identify those who had died on Thursday afternoon.
Around 20 people have been taken to hospital to treat injuries, with one woman’s condition described as “delicate,” the state government said.
The bus, part of the Elite passenger line, crashed near Barranca Blanca on the highway outside state capital Tepic, officials said.
Rescue has been “extremely difficult”, said Jorge Benito Rodriguez, security and civil protection secretary for Nayarit, as the ravine was some 40 meters (131 ft) deep.
Neither the bus company nor Mexico’s migration institute immediately responded to requests for comment.
Last month, a bus crash in the southern state of Oaxaca left 29 people dead, and in February, a bus carrying migrants from South and Central America crashed in central Mexico, killing 17.”
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