A bus carrying university students and a truck collided on a highway in south-eastern Brazil, killing 12 passengers and injuring 21 others, authorities announced on Friday.
The truck driver, who was also injured, tried to flee the premises of the accident late Thursday evening on a highway near the city of Ribeirao Preto, in the state of Sao Paulo, but was captured and hospitalized, Authorities said. He was then accused of having tried to flee the premises, of manslaughter and bodily injury.
All the dead were students from the University of French, officials said. The injured were taken to hospitals in the region, but most were released. One of the injured suffered from a “head trauma” and three others were hospitalized and are in a stable state, the AFP news agency reported.
Local television stations broadcast images of the crash scene showing the bus, its left side completely destroyed in the collision.
Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said three days of official mourning in the state of Sao Paulo, where the accident occurred.
“We wake up with the sad news of this tragedy that killed 12 students in a terrible accident involving a bus and a truck”, ” Freitas wrote on social networksAdding: “They saw their shortened dreams.”
The university said in a Social Network Declaration He provided “support and psychological assistance to his academic community and to all directly affected people who need support in this difficult period”.
In 2024, more than 10,000 people died in traffic accidents in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Transport.
In December, another accident between a passenger bus and a truck killed 38 people On a highway in the state of Minas Gerais.
Last September, a bus transporting the Coriba Crocodiles football team changed on a road, killing three people. The bus was traveling from the south of the city of Curitiba to a match in Rio de Janeiro, where the team was to play in the country’s American football championship. The game was canceled after the fatal accident.
