1st LD: Death toll increases to 43 in bus crash in Brazil

At least 43 people possibly died and several others were wounded after a tourist bus plunged 400 meters into a ravine in Santa Catarina province in southern Brazil Saturday afternoon, according to local GLOBO website.

Up to 11 p.m.(0200GMT), 41 people were found dead and two more died in a local hospital, bringing the death toll to 43, confirmed by local police.

An earlier report said at least 32 people were killed.

The number of casualties might continue to increase.

Up to now the local police didn't know the exact number of people on the bus when it crashed, or whether the driver was dead.

Rescue crews were still trying to search for survivors and recover the bodies of the victims late in the day.

According to a preliminary investigation, the driver lost control of the vehicle during a turn, causing it to veer off the road. Highway and weather conditions at the time were good, a police spokesman said.

The accident happened on the SC-418 highway, KM89, just 10 kilometers away from the destination in the city of Joinville.

The crash might be the worst deadly bus accident in Santa Catarina in history. In 2000, an Argentina's bus crashed in Santa Catarina, killing 42 people.

The country averages more than 18 highway deaths per 100,000 people per year, compared with only about 10 in high-income countries, according to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank, the most important regional development institution in Latin America and the Caribbean. Endi