A passenger bus crash on a central Mexican highway left 19 people dead and six others injured early Saturday morning, October 26, when it collided with a detached trailer carrying corn, authorities confirmed.
The Omnibus de Mexico bus, traveling from Tepic in the western state of Nayarit to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, struck the trailer on a highway connecting Zacatecas with Aguascalientes states.
The impact caused the bus to roll and fall into a ravine.
Initial reports from Zacatecas Governor David Monreal indicated 24 fatalities, but the state attorney general’s office later revised the death toll to 19, according to Rodrigo Reyes, a senior Zacatecas state official.
Emergency response teams, including the Mexican army and National Guard, worked throughout Saturday morning to recover bodies from the ravine. The injured passengers received treatment at hospitals in Zacatecas.
Juan Manriquez Moreno, coordinator of the National Guard in Zacatecas, confirmed that the truck trailer detached on the highway before the collision. The passenger bus then struck the trailer and tipped onto its right side.
The state attorney general’s office announced an investigation to locate and arrest the driver of the tractor-trailer. Officials closed the highway while securing the crash site.
The attorney general’s office confirmed the bus passengers did not include migrants.
The incident adds to Mexico’s rising traffic accident statistics. Government data shows accidents increased from 300,000 in 2020 to 381,048 in 2023, resulting in 4,803 deaths and more than 90,000 injuries, according to the Inegi national statistics institute.
