At least 19 persons dead after passenger bus collides with lorry in Mexico

Nineteen persons were killed in a horrific collision between a double-decker bus and a truck in Mexico.

The vehicles collided at La Cruz, on the highway between Mazatlan and Culiacan in the country’s northwest on Tuesday.

At least 22 people were injured, and Sinaloa’s attorney general, Sara Quinonez, said it would take time to identify the dead.

Officials were at the scene to remove remains from the charred wreckage of the bus, which had been traveling from the city of Guadalajara in the western state of Jalisco to Los Mochis in Sinaloa.

The truck and the bus – carrying nearly 50 people – collided head-on before catching fire, Roy Navarrete, director of civil protection in Sinaloa, said at a press conference.

Deadly road accidents are common in Mexico, often due to high speeds, poor vehicle conditions or driver fatigue.

Accidents involving freight trucks have also surged on the country’s roadways.

In one of the worst incidents in recent years, at least 29 people were murdered in July 2023 when a passenger bus careened off a mountain road and crashed into a ravine in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Road crashes are the top cause of mortality for migrants making the perilous journey overland to the United States.