17 die in highway crashes in central, southeast Mexico

At least 17 people were killed in two separate highway accidents early Monday in central and southeast Mexico, authorities said.

A bus carrying about 50 tourists from Acayucan, in Veracruz state, to the popular Caribbean beach resort of Cancun, in southeast Quintana Roo state, lost control and overturned around 4:30 a.m. local time while traveling along a highway linking the cities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Tulum.

At least 11 people were killed in that crash and another 12 were injured, according to media reports.

"The driver of the bus ... escaped," the online daily Proceso reported, adding a two-month-old infant was among the victims.

In a second incident, six men were killed and four were injured when their pick up truck was crushed by a tractor trailer going the wrong way on the highway connecting the city of Puebla, in central Puebla state, with Orizaba, Veracruz.

That accident took place around 8 a.m., when the tractor trailer broke through the highway median and invaded the opposite lanes, smashing into the truck carrying 11 construction workers heading to Puebla.

Five of the victims died instantly and the sixth as rescuers were taking the injured to hospital.

Federal highway police detained the driver of the tractor trailer for questioning. Enditem