Coach accident in Spain kills 14 people

THE worst bus crash in Spain for 13 years claimed the lives of 14 people in Murcia over the weekend.

At least 30 more were injured in the crash, 10 of them seriously. The coach was carrying passengers to the village of Bullas on their way back from a church ceremony in Madrid. The local priest of Bullas was among those who died in the horror crash.

The coach plunged into a ravine just 50 kilometres from Bullas at around midnight on Saturday. Spanish media reported that the bus driver shouted that there was a problem with the brakes before the coach left the road and fell down an embankment.

It is believed that the bus had been travelling too fast and the driver has been charged with homicide and negligence.

More than 200 emergency workers rushed to the scene in the aftermath of the crash. Ten of the passengers were pronounced dead at the scene and four others died in hospital. The coach was carrying more than 50 people and the mayor of Bullas, Pedro Chico, said that some of the town’s residents lost several relatives in the crash.

The accident is the worst bus crash in Spain since 2001, when 19 people died in a crash near Huelva in Andalucia.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will attend the funerals for the victims today in Bullas.