QUITO, (Reuters) – A bus winding its way through Ecuador’s highlands toward the capital of Quito went off the road before dawn yesterday, killing 38 passengers in the worst accident of this kind in the country in years.
Authorities said 12 more people were injured in the crash. Local television showed rescue workers struggling to extract bodies and look for survivors on the steep cliffs around Lake Yambo in the central province of Cotopaxi where the accident occurred.
The bus had started its journey in the southern colonial city of Cuenca in Azuay province.
“We are analyzing the causes of the accident,” Ecuador’s chief traffic accident investigator Wilson Pavon told reporters.
Local TV showed rescue workers extracting a tiny baby from the wreckage. It was unclear if the child was still alive.
