Bus Tragedy in the Andes

Buses are crazy here in Latin America, especially in the Andes Mountains. There the roads are not well maintained, are full of blind curves and switchbacks, and the buses sometimes are barely hung together with bailing wire and a prayer, although they scream through the roads at sometimes astonishing speeds.

There are lots of tragedies that come from this. A few months ago a bus plunged down a mountainside and killed 11 people and injured many more.

But this last week has taken the bus mortality to a horrific level. Buses are often the most convenient, and cheapest way, for groups to travel together. And in this case a whole family hired a bus for a family outing into the mountains not far from Quito. This was family reunion type of thing, with grandparents and uncles and in-laws and nieces. Fifty members of the family were on the bus, plus a driver and an attendant.

The bus was going too fast on bald tires and it roared through a curve and plunged down a ravine. Forty-seven people were killed. Only five children lived long enough to get to the hospital in Quito.

Many things are cheap down here. And sometimes it can be amusing to the Western eye the rickety nature of so much of this land. But public transportation, while convenient and cheap compared to any First World standard, is a dangerous, iffy proposition for those who live down here.