Police officers prepare salvage a vehicle that collided with a Colombian-registered bus travelling to Quito, in Pifo, Ecuador. Photo / AP
A bus apparently lost its brakes, then hit another vehicle at high speed and rolled over four times, killing at least 24 people and injuring 22 while smashing into several houses along a highway near Ecuador's capital.
The Colombian-registered bus was travelling to Quito when it hit a smaller vehicle
in an area known as dead man's curve at about 3am local time, Ecuadorean authorities said.
Residents described hearing a thundering noise like the world crashing down on them as the bus struck their homes in Pifo, a community 30km from Quito.
Michelle Manay said she woke up and ran outside to see the carnage. "There were some people alive and others who weren't," she said.
Colonel Wilson Pavon, head of Ecuador's transit police, said the majority of the passengers aboard were Colombians, but some Venezuelans were also among the dead. Three people, including two minors, traveling in the smaller vehicle also died.
