Four-bus pileup kills six in northern Chile

By AFP
March 12, 2025
Firefighters and police work at the scene of a road collision involving four passenger buses at Route 5 north near the city of Coquimbo, Chile on March 11, 2025. — AFP
Firefighters and police work at the scene of a road collision involving four passenger buses at Route 5 north near the city of Coquimbo, Chile on March 11, 2025. — AFP 

SANTIAGO: A four-bus pileup in northern Chile killed six people overnight and injured 11, authorities said on Tuesday, in what President Gabriel Boric called a “terrible tragedy.”

Reports from witnesses at the scene said two broken-down buses had stopped at the side of the Pan-American Highway before sunrise. A third crashed into the first two, and a fourth bus drove into the third, also running over some passengers who had exited from the other vehicles.

Six people, including the driver of the fourth bus, were killed, police official Juan Munoz of the Coquimbo region said. Eleven others were injured, two critically. A section of the highway remained closed Tuesday, officials said. Boric decried the “terrible tragedy” on X, and offered “condolences and solidarity” to the loved ones of the victims.