3-Bus Collision in Argentina Kills 55 and Injures 70

Three tour buses collided and burned on a narrow provincial highway, killing at least 55 people and injuring about 70 others, authorities said Sunday.

The accident occurred Saturday night in Santo Tome, a town in the northeast corner of Argentina between Brazil and Paraguay.

“Our bus tried to pass another. I don’t know if it speeded up, but we couldn’t pass it,” said one survivor, Andres Vazquez, 23, of Paraguay.

A third bus came around a curve, and the bus he was on tried to fall back into the proper lane, Vazquez said. “That wasn’t possible.”

His bus, a charter going to Buenos Aires, smashed into the oncoming bus, “caught fire and exploded,” Santo Tome Police Chief Manuel Rojas said. Most of its passengers were trapped inside, and many were burned beyond recognition, Rojas said.

The bus it hit, a charter from Buenos Aires to Asuncion, Paraguay, had much of its left side crushed. The third bus flipped and landed on its roof.

“It was horrible, terrifying,” said Raul Munoz, 37, of Uruguay. “The bus that tried to pass us caught fire with many people inside. . . . The bus that sideswiped us broke in two.”