A coach carrying holidaymakers from Belo Horizonte to Copacabana overturned before dawn on Sunday on the BR-040, on the descent through the Serra de Petrópolis in Rio de Janeiro state. Ten people were killed and dozens were hurt.
The federal highway police put the crash at about 4.30am at kilometre 91. Counts of how many were aboard differ — most reports say fifty-six, one says forty-seven. Nine of the dead were women, one of them pregnant, and one was a child. A tenth person was pulled out alive and died after reaching hospital.
Two survivors have described the same thing to Brazilian outlets. One, a twenty-five-year-old, said the driver had been going fast from the beginning of the journey and that the coach began to sway on the way down the mountain. Another, travelling with his wife, said passengers had asked the driver to slow down and that he then lost control.
The operator, Estrela Guia Turismo, said on social media that it was looking into what happened. The case was registered at the 105th police station in Petrópolis and the civil police are investigating. No cause has been established.
The BR-040 descent is one of the steepest stretches of federal road in the south-east, dropping off the escarpment between Petrópolis and the lowlands, and it carries heavy overnight coach traffic between Minas Gerais and the Rio beaches.
Why it is on the board
It was the most-read story on g1 in Brazil on Monday. g1's own most-read piece is not the crash report but the list of who died — the paper led with the victims' names and ages as the police released them. The wire and regional outlets lead instead on the vehicle: how many were aboard, where on the road it happened, and which company operated it.
확인: g1 · Tribuna do Norte · ClicRDC