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At least 14 people are killed and 26 injured after a bus collides with a truck, staggers off a bridge and then sinks 45 feet in Brazil
- At least 14 have been confirmed dead after a bus crashed into a truck and fell off a bridge in southeastern Brazil’s Minas Gerais state on Friday.
- The bus went through a railing and landed on a railroad track below
- At least three of the victims were pronounced dead before reaching the hospital
At least 14 people died and 26 were injured after the bus they were traveling in collided with a truck, staggered off a bridge and then sank 45 feet in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais on Friday.
The bus was traveling at the 217-mile marker of highway BR-381 in the city of João Monlevade when it was involved in the collision with the tractor trailer at approximately 1:30 p.m.
The impact of the accident forced the bus out of the lane and left it hanging near the damaged concrete railing.
Preliminary reports from the Federal Highway Patrol indicate that the driver left the bus with the passengers inside.
Firefighters in Minas Gerais, Brazil, search the wreckage after a bus fell off a bridge on Friday after a truck accident.
The passenger bus caught fire after falling off a bridge Friday afternoon in João Monlevade, a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Residents and lifeguards huddle around bus wreckage in Minas Gerais
According to Brazilian news outlet G1, motorists at the scene said the bus driver tried to put the car in reverse.
Witnesses said at least four people left the bus a moment before it fell 45 feet to the train track below.
Video posted by concerned motorists showed the wreckage of the burning bus as firefighters scoured the area looking for survivors.
At least three of the injured passengers, including two children, were taken to the Hospital de Emergencias João XXIII, in Belo Horizonte, and are in critical condition.
The crash is the second fatal accident in a week in Brazil after a collision between a bus and a truck killed 42 people in Taguaí, São Paulo, last Wednesday. Authorities declared 40 people dead at the scene and another two at a local hospital.
Motorists look over a bridge railing in Minas Gerais, Brazil, on Friday after a bus crashed into a truck and fell off the overpass.
Brazil’s Federal Highway Police said the driver abandoned the bus and escaped before he fell off the bridge.
A resident stands near the railing of the bridge that was demolished in the accident.
