Saturday night bus accident in Morona Santiago claims 18 lives and leaves 25 injured

At least 18 people were killed and 25 others injured in a passenger bus accident in the Sucua canton of the Amazonian province of Morona Santiago in southern Ecuador, the country’s emergency response service reports.

The scene of Saturday night’s deadly bus accident.

The accident occurred on Saturday night in Huambi, when the bus covering the Macas-Loja route veered off its road and overturned, the agency said on Sunday. “The bodies were transferred to the Sucua morgue,” it said, adding that the 25 injured people, including minors and adults, were taken to several area hospitals.

Experts from the Traffic Accident Investigation and the Criminalistics Unit of the National Police have initiated an investigation after the bodies of the dead and injured were removed from the scene.

According to police, the evidence suggested that the bus was moving at excessive speed, crashed into a utility pole and overturned.

Meliana Vargas, one of the survivors, said that the bus was traveling too fast when it hit the pole. “We were screaming and crying for help,” she said, describing the scene following the accident. “There were bodies scattered all over, some with detached arms and legs. It was terrible.”