Tourist Bus Crashes in Mexico, Killing at Least 12

MEXICO CITY — At least 12 people died on Tuesday when a bus carrying cruise ship passengers to Mayan ruins in eastern Mexico flipped over on a highway, officials said.

Seven Americans and two Swedes were among the injured, said Vicente Martin, a spokesman for Quintana Roo State’s civil defense office. He said authorities had not yet established the nationalities of the dead.

Video images from the scene showed the bus on its side off the two-lane highway, with some survivors lying on the pavement and others walking around.

The Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said in a statement that passengers from two of its ships, the Celebrity Equinox and the Serenade of the Seas, were involved in the crash. The company said it was assisting with medical care and transportation.

Mr. Martin said investigators were 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.

Chris Brawley, a passenger on the Serenade of Seas, was on a bus headed to the same Mayan ruins when it came upon the scene minutes after the accident.

He said a convoy of buses from the cruise port at Mahahual were headed to Chacchoben shortly after 9 a.m., he said. The buses had been on the road for about 35 to 40 minutes before the accident.

Mr. Brawly said the sky was clear and the road was dry, and he didn’t see any sign of any other vehicle being involved in the crash, which happened on a narrow, two-lane road with no shoulder or guardrail.

He said he did not see the crash, but “the bus clearly lost control somehow, as there were swerve marks all over the road surface.”

Mr. Brawley, of Haslet, Tex., said his ship departed Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday for a seven-day cruise. The passengers were in Roatan, Honduras, on Monday and were scheduled to be in Cozumel, Mexico, on Wednesday.

Michael Schuenemeyer, a minister from Cleveland, was on another bus that passed the crash about an hour later. “It was in pretty sad shape,” he said.

Costa Maya Mahahual, the bus company involved, said in a statement that in addition to the tourists, a guide and driver were aboard the bus.