At least 29 people lost their lives and 19 others were injured when bus fell into a ravine in a mountainous area in Mexico’s Oaxaca state, according to a more recent casualty count provided by a prosecutor’s office.

“The numbers we have, 12 hours after the start of rescue operations, are 29 dead and 19 injured,” state prosecutor Bernardo Rodríguez Alamigia told AFP by phone.

He clarified that the victims there are 15 women, two of whom died in a hospital where they were being cared for, 13 men and a child.

A previous official count by the authorities spoke of 27 dead and 17 injured.

According to civil protection, at least six of the injured were unconscious when they were taken to hospitals.

The accident it happened yesterday Wednesday around 06:30 [τοπική ώρα· 15:30 ώρα Ελλάδας]according to police and prosecutors’ reports.

The bus, where belonged to a local transport company, he had left the previous evening from the capital, Mexico, for the village of Santiago Yosundua (1,500 inhabitants).

The tragedy occurred in the community of Magdalena Peñasco (about 3,500 inhabitants), one of several in the area served by local transport companies that have buses.

Prosecutor Rodrigues Alamigia explained how an investigation is underway to ascertain the causes of the accident, adding that the first evidence indicated that there was a “mechanical failure”.

The driver “apparently lost control” of the vehicle, which “fell into a 25-meter-deep cliff,” Oaxaca State Government Minister of Public Security, Jesus Romero, said during a press conference.

According to local media, the bus collided brake problem and went off the road at the end of a bend.

“We are deeply saddened by the accident in Magdalena Peñasco,” Oaxaca Governor Salomon Jara said on social media.

He expressed his “condolences to the families of the people who died”.

Visual material released by police shows the top of the vehicle completely destroyed and emergency crews searching through the wreckage.

Oaxaca is a destination that attracts many tourists, as it is something like a miniature of the whole country, with its beaches, the traditions of indigenous tribes, the homonymous capital – one of the most beautiful colonial cities in Mexico – and the pre-Hispanic archaeological site of Monte Albán.

Series of accidents

But at the same time, this state is one of the poorest in the country, mother of many Mexican immigrants to the USA.

Traffic accidents, especially accidents involving buses, have increased alarmingly recently in Mexico, a country of nearly 2 million square kilometers.

In May, 13 people traveling in a minibus were killed in a collision with a truck in the state of Tamaulipas (northeast), which borders the US.

And, also yesterday Wednesday, a car accident in the state of Queretaro (central) caused cars to catch fire and eight people lost their lives, according to a still preliminary report by the authorities.

In the face of rising traffic fatalities, civil society organizations are calling for stricter regulations, for example banning trucks from carrying two trailers.