15 killed in road accident in Bolivia on Christmas Day

A roadway accident involving a passenger bus and a cargo truck has left 15 dead and another 10 injured in Bolivia on Christmas Day, police sources said.

The accident occurred around 2:30 a.m. along the Cochabamba-Oruro Highway in the Challa Grande region of Bolivia, involving first a grey Nissan Condor truck and then a white Balu company bus.

Cochabamba police chief Col. Luis Aguilar told reporters, "we are in the investigative stage. We can't make hasty conclusions about who is responsible, despite having some criteria that will be analyzed."

The truck was transporting a shipment of peaches, as well as several passengers, from Luribay, in the department of La Paz, to Cochabamba. The bus, meanwhile, was taking passengers from Cochabamba to La Paz.

According to Aguilar, initial reports indicate the driver of the Nissan truck, Gualberto Massi, 57, was trying to overtake another vehicle, but the weight of the cargo caused his truck to overturn.

Some 14 truck passengers were hurled onto the highway, along with the cargo of peaches. The bus was hurtling down the road at high speed and ran over the passengers, then crashed into a rock. The impact killed the assistant driver.

Regional Bolivian daily Opinion published an image of the bus being towed away, with the front end practically ripped away by the impact.

The driver of the bus, Fernando Mamani Quispe, 40, is in intensive therapy at hospital, the daily said.

Among the injured were three passengers of the truck and seven of the bus. Endit