LA PAZ: At least 16 people were killed and 32 injured on Monday after a bus rolled some 300 meters (1,000 feet) downhill in central Bolivia, police said.
The accident happened in the morning in Morochata, about two and a half hours from the city of Cochabamba, which is 380 km (235 miles) southeast of La Paz.
Colonel Fernando Aragon, deputy director of the Cochabamba transit department, confirmed the initial toll to reporters.
He described the crash as “one of the most complex cases as it involves a bus with passengers” that crashed in an area “difficult to access.”
A preliminary investigation theorizes the driver “lost control of the vehicle,” Colonel Omar Zegada, the national transit chief, told broadcaster Unitel.
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Authorities did not say whether the 23-year-old driver survived or was among the fatalities. They also have not disclosed the total number of passengers on the bus.
According to government figures, some 1,400 people die each year on Bolivia’s roads, mainly due to driver negligence and mechanical failures.
The most serious accident so far in 2025 happened in March when two buses collided head-on in the south of the country, killing 37 people.
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