AMPOSTA/MADRID: Fourteen students were killed and 43 injured on Sunday when a bus carrying foreign students crashed in northeastern Spain, regional authorities in Catalonia said.
The bus was carrying 56 passengers, according to officials in the northeastern region of Catalonia. Many of the students on board were participating in the Erasmus exchange program between European universities.
The accident occurred just before 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) near the small town of Freginals, about 150 km south of Barcelona as the bus was returning from a traditional festival in the eastern city of Valencia.
The driver “hit the railing on the right and swerved to the left so violently that the bus veered onto the other side of the highway,” Jane said.
The bus then hit a car coming in the opposite direction, injuring two people inside, he added.
Spanish television showed images of the car, the front of which was smashed in, and the bus lying on its side after the accident. An AFP photographer at the scene said many fire trucks were on site, as were three hearses and a heavy-lift crane.
The bus was carrying 57 people in all, including the driver. Of the 43 injured, 30 have been rushed to hospital, Jane said.
Spain’s national radio station RNE spoke to the son of the owner of the company that chartered the bus, only giving his first name Raul. His father was driving another bus in front of the one that crashed.
The accident is one of the deadliest in Spain in the past years.
Spain bus crash leaves 14 students dead, many hurt
Spain bus crash leaves 14 students dead, many hurt
