Atleast 36 people Killed After Bus Plunges
Off Overpass in Southern Italy
July 28, 2013
At least 36 people were killed and several more injured when a bus carrying pilgrims plunged more than 15 metres off an overpass in southern Italy, rescue authorities said.
Rescue workers said they had pulled 33 bodies from the wreckage and had found another three under the vehicle.
They were thrown from the bus after it broke through a barrier and plunged down an embankment near the town of Avellino in the Campania region.
Rescue workers said another 11 people, including at least three children, were pulled alive from the stricken coach and taken to hospital, some with serious injuries.
"The situation is dramatic," a fire service spokesman said, adding that several other vehicles had also been involved in the accident.
It was not yet clear how many people were on the coach, but local media reported it was carrying about 48 people, many of them children, back to Naples.
The passengers were returning from a pilgrimage to Pietrelcina, the birthplace of Saint Pio, an Italian priest canonised in 2002 who is highly venerated in southern Italy.
Emergency services rushed three badly injured children, four women and two men to hospitals in Avellino and nearby Naples, media reports said.
The bus hit several cars before plunging off the overpass and some passengers had been flung from the vehicle as it fell, rescue services said.
It had been travelling at high speed when it crashed on the busy dual carriageway.
There were reports too of injuries among passengers of the seven or eight badly damaged cars scattered near the safety rail which was busted open by the bus as it fell.
An AFP photographer at the scene described rescue workers searching the crash site under lights set up around the bus, which lay on its side in an area at the bottom of the slope.
From time to time, rescue workers called for "a moment of silence" to listen for signs of life from the wreckage, he said.
Police would not put a definitive number on those killed in the accident.
"Our priority now is to free the wounded," a spokesman said.
Head fireman Pellegrino Iandolo told local television: "The situation is critical. Our men are working to save as many lives as possible."
The Naples-Bari highway had been closed to traffic, the police said.
The driver of the bus was killed in the crash.
Witnesses said it appeared as if the bus might have had brake problems.
Others said it was not clear whether the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel or whether the coach could have burst a tyre on the road.
Source
Photos
1. Wrecked cars that were hit by the bus before it crashed over the bridge.
2. The Bus below the bridge.
3. Loaded body bags and awaiting coffins (atleast 40 coffins had been brought to the site).
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