Mexico: Eight killed after a bus collides with trailer truck

Washington, Dec 28 (IANS) At least eight people were killed and 27 others injured after a passenger bus collided with a semi-trailer truck in eastern Mexico, local authorities said.

The collision occurred early on Friday on the Perote-Xalapa highway near Los Molinos in the eastern state of Veracruz, killing three men, four women and one minor, the Veracruz State Attorney General's Office said.

It added that the Xalapa regional prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.

According to local media, the ADO bus was travelling the Mexico City-Xalapa route, and it appeared that the bus driver failed to notice the presence of the semi-trailer, leading to the collision.

Veracruz Governor Rocio Nahle said on social media that the state is working in coordination with the federal government to attend to the passengers and families affected by the accident.

This tragic crash came just a day after another traffic accident in the western state of Michoacan, where at least six people lost their lives, reports Xinhua news agency.

In another instance on Thursday, at least six people were killed and two others seriously injured in a traffic accident in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, said the local town hall.

The accident, involving a white pickup truck carrying three young people and a grey car carrying a family, occurred on the Los Reyes-Jacona highway near the town of La Ventilla in Tocumbo, said Jose Luis Alcazar, Tocumbo's municipal president, in a statement.

"We join in the pain of the families affected by this irreparable loss and send our most sincere condolences to them at this time of sadness," said Alcazar.

The accident site was cordoned off by municipal police officers while the General Prosecutor's Office of Michoacan state based in Tocumbo and Jiquilpan carried out the relevant investigation.

The World Health Organization this year ranked Mexico as the seventh country with the most traffic accidents in the world and the third in deaths resulting from these incidents in Latin America.