An Elite Line bus traveling from Mexico City to Tijuana plummeted 40 meters into a ravine on the Tepic libramiento (bypass) in the early hours of Thursday, August 3, killing 18 passengers, including three children.
A Nayarit government press release issued at 3 p.m. on Thursday said that among the passengers were “foreigners originating from countries such as India, the Dominican Republic and the African continent, who were heading to Tijuana to cross into the United States.”
While the identities of the 18 deceased passengers were not released, the state government named 20 injured passengers, aged from two to 57, who are being treated at the Hospital Puerta de Hierro in Tepic. Five of these are foreign citizens.
One news report said one foreigner died in the accident but did not reveal his or her nationality. Forty passengers were traveling on the bus, the Nayarit government reported.
The bulletin said “preliminary investigations” concluded that the bus was in “regular mechanical condition” and that brake failure was not a cause of the accident. After interviews with survivors, investigators believe the driver was exceeding the 80 kilometers per hour speed limit, and lost control of the bus while overtaking another vehicle. No other vehicle was involved in the incident, the press release noted.
The accident occurred around 3 a.m. The driver of vehicle, who was injured and is hospitalized, had relieved his co-driver shortly after the bus had passed by Guadalajara, reports said.