At least 38 people were killed in a “tragic” traffic collision between a bus and a car in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the Associated Press reported, citing Department officials who attended the scene. Toll’s death had initially been set at 22.
It is added that 13 people were taken to hospitals near the city of Teófilo Otoni.
Authorities said the bus, which reportedly left São Paulo with 45 passengers, blew its tires, causing the driver to lose control and crash into a lorry.
Another car then collided with the bus, but all three of its passengers survived, the department said. Reuters said the crash, which happened around 4am, caused the bus to catch fire.
Images emerging from the scene show a broken truck on top of a car – its giant wheel embedded in the roof of a smaller vehicle – with the Minas Gerais fire department saying the collision took place on the BR-116 road.
The pictures showed a road paved with twisted and burnt metal, raised bus seats pulled out of their nets, and wrecked transport blankets.
Unidentified workers were pictured at the scene, still carrying several victims of the crash, one official told the AP. A firefighter said a crane was needed to access parts of the bus waiting for the victims.
Romeu Zema in charge of Minas Gerais said in X * “full movement” was ordered to “help the victims and their families in the tragic accident on BR-116, in Teófilo Otoni.”
Zema said security forces have been working since dawn to respond and that the president’s military service was ready to rescue the workers.
The president said, “My sincere condolences to family and friends.” “We will do our best to support the families of the victims so that they can face this tragedy in the most humane way possible on Christmas Eve, a day that is so meaningful to everyone.”
Brazil has an estimated road traffic death rate of 15.7 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to he compiled the data by the UN, which is much higher, for example, than the estimated 8.8 deaths per 100,000 people in Argentina.
The country announced plans to try to divide the number of homicides on the road network by the end of the decade, which the Ministry of Transport says will. to save 86,000 lives between 2021 and 2030.
In September, a bus flipped over while carrying the Coritiba Crocodiles – the American professional soccer team – to a match, killing three people.