Bus crash in central Mexico leaves 17 migrants dead

At least 13 other migrants were severely injured.

At least 17 migrants are dead after the bus they were traveling in crashed in the central Mexican state of Puebla, officials said Monday, February 20, 2023.

All the dead were migrants, including people from Venezuela, Colombia and Central America, according to Julio Huerta, the Puebla state interior secretary.

Huerta said the accident occurred Sunday on a highway leading from the southern state of Oaxaca. He said the migrants appeared to have been traveling without appropriate documents.

Fifteen of the 45 passengers died at the scene, and two more died at a hospital. Five were hospitalised and in critical condition, and eight others apparently suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Huerta said all the migrants were adults.

Migrants frequently use trucks and buses to travel through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Because they are often crammed into unsafe, illegal or clandestine transportation, accidents are not uncommon.

In 2021 a truck carrying migrants overturned on a highway near the southern city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, killing 56 people.