They Left the Cruise to See Mayan Ruins. Then, a Crash

11 passengers and Mexican guide are killed
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 20, 2017 12:55 AM CST
11 Cruise Passengers, Guide Killed in Mexico Bus Crash
An ambulance sits parked next to an overturned bus in Mahahual, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017. The bus carrying cruise ship passengers to the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben in eastern Mexico flipped over on a highway early Tuesday.   (Novedades de Quintana Roo via AP)

A bus carrying cruise ship passengers on an excursion to Mayan ruins in southeastern Mexico flipped over on a narrow highway Tuesday, killing 11 tourists, including a child, and their Mexican tour guide. Around 20 other people were injured, officials say. Seven Americans and two Swedes are among the injured, says Vicente Martin, spokesman for the Quintana Roo state civil defense agency. Authorities have not yet established the nationalities of the dead. Martin says investigators are working to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred as the bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles south of Tulum. The bus ended up on its side in vegetation along the two-lane road.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said in a statement that passengers from two of its ships, the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were on the bus. The company expressed its sympathies and said it was assisting with medical care and transportation, the AP reports. Chris Brawley, a passenger on the Serenade of Seas, was on a bus headed to the same Mayan ruins when they came on the scene minutes after the accident. He says a convoy of buses from the cruise port had been on the road for about 40 minutes before the accident. He says the sky was clear and the road was dry and he didn't see any sign of another vehicle being involved in the crash, which happened on a narrow road with no shoulder or guardrail.

(More Mexico stories.)

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