BFF-27 Colombia says 19 citizens killed in tourist bus crash

1184

ZCZC

BFF-27

COLOMBIA-ECUADOR-BUS

Colombia says 19 citizens killed in tourist bus crash

BOGOTA, Aug 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nineteen of the 24 victims in a fatal
tourist bus crash in Ecuador on Tuesday were Colombian, the government
confirmed on Wednesday. The crash just outside Quito also left 22 people
injured.

Ecuadoran authorities had already said on Tuesday that most of the victims
were Colombian, with others from Venezuela.

Five victims have been identified so far, Colombia’s Attorney General’s
office said in a statement.

“Once all the bodies have been identified,” they will be returned to
Colombia, the statement added.

Another 12 of the injured are also Colombian but “out of danger,” the
foreign ministry said.

The bus, which had foreign license plates, overturned and crashed into
three houses after a collision with an all-terrain vehicle.

Three of the four Ecuadorans in the all-terrain vehicle were among the
dead, which included three children.

Colombia’s Transport Ministry had said on Tuesday that the bus was not
authorized to carry tourists.

Traffic accidents are among the leading causes of death in Ecuador.

According to the watchdog group Justicia Vial, on average seven people are
killed and some 80 people injured each day in traffic accidents.

And 96 percent of those accidents are due to human error, according to the
group’s figures.

On Sunday, 12 people were killed and 30 injured when a bus carrying fans
of Barcelona SC, Ecuador’s most popular football club based in Guayaquil, ran
off the highway and flipped.

BSS/AFP/MRU/2345hrs