Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Happy to return to their communities in southern Francisco Morazán, they boarded the bus, unaware of the tragedy that would engulf them minutes later.

The transport unit en route from Tegucigalpa to the municipality of San Miguelito, Francisco Morazán, was hit by a trailer transporting melons from Choluteca to Puerto Cortés.

The tragic toll from the deadly attack was 23 dead and 35 injured, four of whom were minors.

The tragedy
The clock struck 10:30 on Sunday morning when a loud bang interrupted the tranquility of the area. The screams of people pleading for help were heard by neighbors passing by, who without hesitation began to assist the survivors of the deadly accident.

“The children were crying and shouting ‘help, help!’ It was very sad,” recalled Mrs. Sonia Reyes, one of the witnesses to the incident.

People ran from one side to the other, pulling survivors from the wreckage of the bus. Many were pulled out through the windows and then transported to hospitals in private vehicles.

Neighbors and passersby, along with emergency personnel, rescued José Eliseo Aguilar Meza (36), driver of the blue trailer with license plates AAI 2830, who miraculously survived.

According to officers from the National Traffic Department (DNT), the driver was immediately taken to the Loarque police station because the less seriously injured individuals attempted to attack him, blaming him for the accident. It
was initially reported that the driver could be charged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office because, according to witnesses, he was traveling at excessive speed and zigzagging on the road until he finally crashed into the bus on a curve.

At approximately 10:50 a.m., the Fire Department received an accident alert and dispatched several ambulances to kilometer 10 of the southern highway. First responders from the Red Cross, the Contingency Committee (Copeco), the National Police, and the Military Police of Public Order (PMOP) also arrived on the scene.
Together, the first responders rescued 39 passengers, four of whom died while receiving medical attention at the University Hospital.

The bodies lay one on top of the other inside the bus, tilted towards the door, with the heavy trailer on top of it.

Using the rear door, which had already been opened by rescuers, Forensic Medicine and Ocular Inspection personnel from the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI) began identifying the deceased.

At 11:30 a.m., authorities identified the bodies of José Ángel Fúnez Cruz (35), the bus driver, and a passenger who was not identified because he was not carrying personal documents. They then identified ten other victims, including three women of different ages.
+Truck driver who caused road tragedy
captured Trapped

Because other victims were trapped in the iron mass of the trailer and the transport unit, a DNT crane was mobilized to the scene, but attempts to move the heavy trailer were unsuccessful, so it was necessary to bring in an excavator to remove the trailer from the bus, which made it necessary to practically destroy the cabin and part of the roof of the bus to remove the bodies.

It was 4:20 in the afternoon when a new lifeless body was recovered, who was identified as Francis Etzequiel Fúnez Meza (27), then the bodies of Kaydin Ramírez Vásquez and Keydi Yosselin Ramírez Reyes (24) were extracted.

The latter was pregnant and had been discharged yesterday from the Maternal and Child Hospital, where she had been hospitalized for several days due to complications during her pregnancy.