A truck coming down a hill plowed into rescue workers and gawkers at the site of an earlier collision — a double accident that killed least 25 people and injured 87, police said Wednesday.
The first crash occurred when one truck tried to pass another on a curve and smashed into an oncoming bus with about 20 people aboard, said highway police spokesman Adrian Fiamoncini. Six people on the bus and the truck driver were killed.
“It was a serious accident but everything was under control,” Fiamoncini said. But about 90 minutes later, “all of a sudden, for no reason another truck arrived and ran everybody over, firefighters, police, people who stopped at the scene,” Fiamoncini said.
He said it was still unclear why the other truck failed to stop but said it might have lost its brakes.
The second accident killed 18 people, including three firefighters and a policeman, he said. The driver of the second truck was hospitalized under police custody.
Fiamoncini said many of the injured remained in serious condition and that rescue workers were still looking for other victims.