2nd LD Writethru: Death toll increases to 49 in bus crash in Brazil

Local police of Brazil's Santa Catarina state put the death toll of a bus accident in southern Brazil at 49.

The government of the state said the victims include eight children, three adolescents, 24 females and 15 men. Ten people are being treated at nearby hospitals.

The toll had initially been put at 32, and then raised to 43 but the number rose throughout the night as rescuers continued to find bodies at the difficult-to-access crash site in Santa Catarina state.

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.

A preliminary investigation showed that 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 km away from the destination in the city of Joinville.

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