Bus crash in Ecuador kills 24 people, injures 19

A bus hit another vehicle at high speed and then rolled over four times, killing at least 24 people and injuring 19 while smashing into several houses along a highway near Ecuador’s capital early on Tuesday, officials said.

The Colombian-registered bus was travelling to Quito when it hit a smaller vehicle in an area known as dead man’s curve at about 3am, Ecuadorean authorities said.

Wilson Pavon, head of Ecuador’s transit police, said the majority of the passengers aboard were Colombians, but some Venezuelans were also among the dead. Three people, including two minors, travelling in the smaller vehicle also died.

A small fleet of ambulances and first responders rushed to the crash site about two hours from Quito before dawn. They found the severely wrecked bus overturned and several homes adjacent to the highway damaged and strewn with metal debris.

Patricio Carillo of the Ecuadorean police told local reporters that it appeared the bus driver lost control and hit an oncoming car before crashing into poles and houses as it rolled over four times.