Maltrata, Mexico – The small Mexican town of Maltrata has been turned into a morgue for the bodies of the some 60 victims of a bus accident.
The Red Cross office in Maltrata said 57 people died in Monday’s accident, while Veracruz state Civil Defense deputy secretary Ranulfo Marquez said 63 people died and three others were critically injured.
The city hall in Maltrata, in the mountainous region of the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, appears Dantesque, with open caskets awaiting identification of victims by their next of kin.
The task of identifying the dead was made more difficult and painful because many of the victims suffered severe trauma when the bus plunged off a highway into a 150-meter (492-foot) ravine near the towns of La Estancia and Balastrera.
The stench of death permeates every inch of this small town, whose residents have been rocked by the deadly accident.
Few relatives of the victims have been able to get here from the southern state of Tabasco, where most of the bus passengers were from.
The victims had been on a tour of the western city of Guadalajara, Mexico City and the port city of Veracruz, from where they planned to return to Tabasco.
The tragic accident came as many Mexicans were returning home Monday from Holy Week excursions.
Speeding and a possible failure of the 1984 Dina bus’s brake system may have been what ended the trip abruptly and tragically.
Specialists said the vehicle was obsolete and it was difficult to find parts for such buses since Dina went bankrupt in 2002.
Among the injured was 7-year-old Elisa Jimenez, who was hospitalized in Orizaba and is fighting for her life.
Two other injured passengers, a woman and a man, were pulled out of the mangled wreckage and are in critical condition.
Dozens of chairs have been set up outside Maltrata’s city hall for the victims’ relatives.
The bus, which had a capacity of 45 but was carrying 60 people, was completely destroyed, the Red Cross said, adding that the exact number of passengers was still unknown since the few survivors are not in condition to help.
Federal police initially reported 57 dead and said the vehicle was carrying 60 occupants.
