A truck driver crushed 18 people and ran away

Guatemala is mourning after the death of 18 indigenous Wednesday night after being crushed by a huge white truck on a dark road in the west of the country. The driver escaped but was later arrested by the police.

The tragedy occurred near the 21 at kilometer 159.5 of the Inter-American Highway, at the entrance to the city of NahualaMoments later, another neighbor was fatally crushed by another driver who had also escaped.

People had come together to cut off the traffic and help the victim when the truck appeared and devastated with allsaid the spokesman of the municipal departmental fire department, Cecilio Chacaj.

The accident left a balance of 18 dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and 19 wounded, some of gravity, which were transferred to hospitals in the region.

The driver escaped but was later arrested by the police. He was identified as Pedro René Lorenzo López, 28 years old.

A video transmitted by the local channels and that a neighbor of the place would have taken shows the first accident in which a man is killed and several vehicles pbading at high speed pbad on his body. We also see several neighbors coming to help him.

In another video that circulates on social networks, you can see what would have happened next: scattered bodies lying on the asphalt with their multicolored costumes, many mutilated, while several people cry for help.

President Jimmy Morales lamented the incident on Twitter and said his government "is coordinating actions to provide all the necessary support to the families of the victims, my deepest sympathy".

The government announced in a statement that as of Thursday, national mourning will be declared for three days "in memory of the deceased" in the accident.