Bus full of passengers to Camboriú overturned in Brazil: 19 dead

A bus of about fifty people crashed on Monday on a road in southern Brazil. The accident left at least 19 dead.

The vehicle was traveling on the road when hits the retaining wall, He pulled off the road and fell on the asphalt side at kilometer 668 of the BR-376 road at 8:30 a.m. local time.

The bus passed through Guaratuba, on the coast of Paraná, a Brazilian state on the border with Paraguay and Argentina. He left last Friday from Ananindeua (state of Pará, north) for the municipality of Balneario Camboriú, in Santa Catarina (south), a trip of nearly 3,700 kilometers at the scene of the accident.

According to the latest report from authorities, 19 people lost their lives, while 33 were injured, six of them serious.

The fatal victims are 13 adults, 5 adolescents and a child.

There were 53 people in the vehicle at the time of the accident, in addition to the two drivers.

The authorities pointed out that the vehicle was a few meters from the side of the road. If he had completely cleared the banks of a nearby river, “the death toll would have been greater.”

Brazilian firefighters’ ambulances and helicopters went to the scene to rescue the injured, who were transferred to health centers in Curitiba and Joinville, according to Brazilian information portal G1.

One of the bus drivers was transferred to the Guaratuba civil police station, in charge of the investigations and where he must report what happened.

Authorities said the driver said the vehicle encountered a problem with the brakes after entering the “Sierra curve,” an area in which other accidents had already occurred. However, the bus driver said “it was too late” when he realized the damage, according to the account given to Folha de Sao Paulo.

Ananindeua-based Turismo Pires da Cruz reported that the bus it owned left Belem, the capital of Pará, on Friday on a trip hired by a particular group of people.

The bodies of the victims have been sent to the Curitiba Institute of Forensic Medicine (IML), from where they are to be airlifted to the Amazon.

With information from EFE and DPA