At least 37 dead after passenger bus falls into ravine in Peru

A passenger bus fell into a deep ravine early Wednesday after crashing with another vehicle in southern Peru, killing at least 37 people and injuring 13 more, authorities said.

The health manager of the Arequipa region, Walther Oporto, told local radio RPP that the bus hit a pickup truck and went off a road on a curve, falling more than 650 feet to the banks of the Ocoña river.

The bus had departed from the city of Chala, a mining area also in southern Peru, and was heading to the city of Arequipa.

Local leaders offered their condolences to the families of crash victims, saying in a statement they are praying for those who died and for the speedy recovery of those who were injured.

Fatal bus accidents are not uncommon in Peru. Following a deadly spate of them over a number of years, Peruvian officials in 2018 banned all buses from carrying passengers across a narrow stretch of highway near the country’s Pacific Coast, which had been dubbed “Devil’s Curve.” 

At the time, more than 50 people recently fell to their deaths when the bus they were riding in tumbled over a cliff along that road, in one of Peru’s deadliest vehicle accidents in history. 

In August, a bus overturned on a highway and 10 people died. In July, another bus traveling from Lima to Peru’s Amazon region also overturned, leaving at least 18 people dead and 48 injured.

In January, at least six people died and 32 were injured when a bus fell into a river.

In 2024 there were approximately 3,173 deaths as a result of traffic accidents in the South American country, according to official data from the Death Information System.