47 killed in Ecuador mountain bus crash

A bus carrying families overturned on a winding mountain road, killing 47 adults and children near the Ecuadorean capital, police said.

Police spokesman Patricio Quimso said all passengers were killed except for five injured children taken to a Quito hospital. Three died on the way to the hospital, he said.

“There are 47 dead and five children who survived,” Quimso said. He did not know how many children were killed.

The wreck occurred near the village of Papallacta, 27 miles south-east of Quito, Quimso said.

“Due to excess speed, the driver lost control of the bus and it turned over,” he said.

Quimso said the passengers had been returning to their homes in the community of Amaguana, 10 miles south of Quito.

Jhonny Franco, a Red Cross spokesman, confirmed the number of dead.

Samuel Llumiquinga, president of a neighbourhood association in Amaguana, said the families had rented the bus for an all-day outing at the thermal baths at Papallacta, a popular tourist site. Llumiquinga, who was at the morgue in Quito where relatives gathered to claim victims’ bodies, said he did not know how many children were on the bus.

Television images showed the bus completely destroyed and dozens of bodies placed beside the highway by rescuers. Local residents told TV reporters that the dead included the bodies of “many” children.

Deadly crashes are common on mountain roads in the Andes, due to blind curves, poorly maintained vehicles and recklessness.

On March 24, a passenger bus tumbled 1,000 feet off a jungle mountain road in Ecuador, killing 17 people and injuring 16.