Fuel tanker-bus deadly collision caused by bus driver: Mexican officials

A fiery head-on collision between a tanker truck ferrying fuel and a passenger bus in south Mexico was caused by the bus driver, officials said on Friday.

The accident, which occurred on early Thursday along a highway in the border region between the states of Guerrero and Michoacan, left 24 people dead, including the drivers of both vehicles, and nine people injured.

A security spokesperson for Guerrero state, Roberto Alvarez Heredia, said an investigation by both state and federal police found the bus had moved into the opposite lane and crashed head on into the truck, which was laden with fuel.

Shortly after the impact, the tanker truck exploded into flames, burning to death most of the victims.

"The driver of the passenger bus made some type of mistake leading him to invade the opposite lane and crash into the front of the tanker truck that was full of fuel, which caused a fire and obviously the tragic outcome," Alvarez told Radio Red news.

The forensics studies were backed by firsthand accounts from the nine survivors, who are being treated at a hospital in Michoacan, he said.

The bus passengers were all members of one family and their neighbors who had rented the vehicle to travel from Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, to either Zihuatanejo or Acapulco, both beach resorts in Guerrero, for the Easter weekend. Endit