ROME — At least 38 passengers died and more than 10 were seriously injured, including children, when a bus plunged 100 feet off a viaduct on a treacherous stretch of mountainous highway in the Campania region of southern Italy on Sunday night, officials told Italian media.
[h=6]Ciro De Luca/Reuters[/h] Dozens of people died on Sunday after a bus plunged 100 feet off a viaduct in southern Italy.
The highway police told state radio that the bus slammed into cars which had slowed for heavy traffic before plunging off the road and down a ravine about 160 miles south of Rome. Italian television showed images of rescue workers pulling people from dozens of mangled cars that lined the highway.
Italian media showed a row of corpses under white sheets in the early morning light Monday. Rescue workers removed the bus to a demolition center for investigation. The stretch of the A16 highway between the towns of Monteforte Irpino and Baiano, near Avellino, is mountainous, and the bus crashed on a curving descent.
Authorities have opened an investigation into whether the driver, who died in the crash, was at fault; whether the bus was in proper condition; whether there were adequate signs on the road signaling construction work; and whether the guardrail over which the bus plunged met safety standards, the ANSA news agency reported.
The passengers, many from the same family, had been vacationing for a few days in the town of Telese Terme in Campania. Before returning home to the Naples area they had planned to stop in the town of Pietrelcina, the birthplace of Padre Pio, the director of the hotel where the guests had stayed told the ANSA news agency. The Capuchin monk is venerated as a saint and he is said to have borne the bleeding wounds of the crucified Christ on his hands, feet and side for 50 years before his death in 1968. He has a cult following in southern Italy.
[h=6]Ciro De Luca/Reuters[/h] Dozens of people died on Sunday after a bus plunged 100 feet off a viaduct in southern Italy.
The highway police told state radio that the bus slammed into cars which had slowed for heavy traffic before plunging off the road and down a ravine about 160 miles south of Rome. Italian television showed images of rescue workers pulling people from dozens of mangled cars that lined the highway.
Italian media showed a row of corpses under white sheets in the early morning light Monday. Rescue workers removed the bus to a demolition center for investigation. The stretch of the A16 highway between the towns of Monteforte Irpino and Baiano, near Avellino, is mountainous, and the bus crashed on a curving descent.
Authorities have opened an investigation into whether the driver, who died in the crash, was at fault; whether the bus was in proper condition; whether there were adequate signs on the road signaling construction work; and whether the guardrail over which the bus plunged met safety standards, the ANSA news agency reported.
The passengers, many from the same family, had been vacationing for a few days in the town of Telese Terme in Campania. Before returning home to the Naples area they had planned to stop in the town of Pietrelcina, the birthplace of Padre Pio, the director of the hotel where the guests had stayed told the ANSA news agency. The Capuchin monk is venerated as a saint and he is said to have borne the bleeding wounds of the crucified Christ on his hands, feet and side for 50 years before his death in 1968. He has a cult following in southern Italy.