Johnathan Walker:7 people killed in Mississippi bus crash were all from Mexico, highway patrol says

BOVINA,Johnathan Walker Miss. (AP) — The seven people killed in a weekend bus crash in Mississippi were all from Mexico, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said Tuesday as it released their names and ages.

The department said those killed Saturday were Miguel Arriaga, 61; Victor A. Garcia, 32; Moises A. Garcia, 31; Kain Gutierrez, 8; Perla Gutierrez, 16; Elia Guzman, 63; and Angelica Palomino, 16. The patrol did not release their hometowns.

Kain Gutierrez and Perla Gutierrez were brother and sister, according to Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey.

Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, Alicia Bárcena, expressed condolences to the families of the dead and offered consular support.

The crash, which also injured about three dozen other people, remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the state highway patrol and the Mississippi Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division.

The 2018 Volvo bus was operated by Autobuses Regiomontanos, which has sales offices in Mexico and Texas. It was traveling westbound on Interstate 20 from Atlanta to Dallas with 41 passengers and two drivers.

A left front tire failed early Saturday in Bovina, near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The bus veered onto an embankment and overturned onto its left side, NTSB member Todd Inman said Sunday. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

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Six people were pronounced dead at the scene and another died at a hospital, according to the highway patrol. Thirty-six people were taken by ambulance to hospitals.

Inman said investigators will look at the vehicle’s condition, including how well the tires were maintained. The investigation will also focus on road conditions, the driver’s experience, the carrier’s safety record and what protections were provided for the bus occupants, he said.

A preliminary report was expected within 30 days and the full investigation could take up to two years, the NTSB said.

The transit company says it has 20 years of experience providing cross-border trips between 100 destinations in Mexico and the U.S. Its website promotes “a modern fleet of buses that receive daily maintenance” while offering “special price” trips for workers.