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At least 41 dead after Argentinian border staff's bus crashes into ravine At least 43 dead after Argentinian border police bus crashes off bridge
(about 5 hours later)
At least 41 police officers were killed when a bus in a convoy in northern Argentina went off the side of a bridge and crashed into a ravine. At least 43 police officers were killed when a bus in a convoy in northern Argentina blew a tyre and veered off the side of a bridge, falling at about 65ft in an accident that brought the poor state of the South American nation’s roads into focus.
The bus was one of three carrying police near Salta, a city about 900 miles north of Buenos Aires. The bus was one of three carrying police near Salta, a city about 932 miles north of Buenos Aires. The National Gendarmerie officers, a special police force typically charged with patrolling frontier regions, were on their way to Jujuy, a region in northern Argentina that borders Bolivia.
“For reasons that are still unknown, the bus lost control while entering the bridge and fell into the creek bed below,” said a statement issued by the National Gendarmerie, a special police force typically charged with patrolling frontier regions. Security minister Patricia Bullrich, who toured the scene, told reporters that an initial investigation found that the right tyre of the bus ruptured. “This is a tragedy. We are going to work to make sure gendarmes are better equipped,” she said.
Local television images showed rescue crews working around the overturned bus, which authorities said was carrying around 60 people.Local television images showed rescue crews working around the overturned bus, which authorities said was carrying around 60 people.
Gustavo Diaz, head of a group of volunteer firefighters in the area, told state news agency Telam that 20 police were severely injured and were being treated in area hospitals. Roads in Argentina, a large country with a land mass about four times that of Texas, are poorly maintained in many rural areas.
The group was heading to the province of Jujuy, the country’s most northern region that borders Bolivia. The crash comes as President Mauricio Macri begins his first full week in office. He issued a statement offering condolences to the families of the victims. “It’s for this reason that we need to improve the roads so that this doesn’t keep happening,” the statement read.
Roads in Argentina are poorly maintained in many rural areas. President Mauricio Macri, elected last month on a platform that included improving Argentina’s rural roads, sent his condolences to families of the victims of the crash. Juan Manuel Urtubey, the governor of Salta, said that this accident wasn’t caused by the poor state of Route 34, which some locally call the “highway of death” for the high number of accidents on it.
“We need to improve our highways so these things don’t keep happening,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference in Buenos Aires province. “There are problems, but not on that part of the road,” he said, adding that the tyre appeared to be the cause.
In 2012, a dozen gendarmes were killed in accident in the southern province of Chubut when their bus collided with a truck.