at least 38 dead in a bus accident in the east of the country

“I send my prayers to the families of the more than thirty victims of the accident in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais,” posted President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his social networks, after the tragedy.

Brazil in mourning again after a road tragedy. At least 38 people died on Saturday, December 21, in a bus accident followed by a fire, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (south-east), according to a provisional report announced by the local police. Eight people are hospitalized in serious condition. “I send my prayers to the families of the more than thirty victims of the accident in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais”, declared President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his social networks. “I pray for the recovery of the survivors of this terrible tragedy.”

The governor of the state of Minas Gerais declared for his part that he was working “so that the families of the victims are supported in order to cope with this tragedy in the most human way possible, on the eve of Christmas”.

The circumstances of the accident have not yet been established, the firefighters having collected divergent testimonies: one reports a puncture in the middle of the night, which would have led the driver to lose control of the vehicle and hit a truck; the other mentions a block of granite transported by a truck and which fell on the bus, which was following it.

Firefighters initially declared that they had fought the flames and removed 22 bodies from the bus which was traveling on the highway linking São Paulo (south-east) to Vitória da Conquista, in the state of Bahia (north-east). But after being able to access another part of the bus using a crane, they revised the toll upwards. A fire department spokesperson told AFP by telephone that it was difficult to establish an exact count of victims. “due to the condition of the bodies”.

Brazil is the third country in the world for the number of road deaths, after India and China, according to the World Health Organization's Road Safety Status Report 2023. At the end of November, a bus accident in the state of Alagoas, in the northeast of the country, left 17 dead when the vehicle plunged into a ravine while traveling on a mountain road.