- A bus carrying exchange students crashed in Spain
- The tragic incident left 13 students dead and 34 others injured
- The Italian Prime Minister confirmed that several Italian students perished in the bus crash
A bus carrying university exchange students back from Spain’s largest fireworks festival crashed on a highway last Sunday, March 20, killing at least 13 passengers and injuring more than 30 others.
An article published by Time on March 20, 2016 said the bus was carrying more than 50 people when it appeared to have hit a road barrier on the right side of AP7 highway and swerved to the left so violently that it veered into the other side of the road.
The bus hit an oncoming car on the opposite side of the highway, injuring two of its passengers.
Local Spanish officials said the bus was carrying Spanish students as well as students from the UK, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Italy, Peru, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, the Palestinian territories, Japan and Ukraine.
Jordi Jane, spokesman for Spain’s northeastern Catalonia province, said the students, who were part of the Erasmus Exchange Program, traveled to Valencia to take part in the Fallas fireworks festival held each year on the feast day of St. Joseph and draws thousands of tourists from across the world.
The bus was one of the five buses that were on their way back to Barcelona when the crash happened near Freginals, halfway between Valencia and Barcelona.
Harold Heckle said in an article he wrote for Yahoo News that the Erasmus program provides foreign exchange courses for students from counties within the 28-nation European Union and enables them to attend many of the continent’s best universities.
The bus driver, who passed the drug and alcohol test he was given, is being held at a police station in Tortosa City. The driver, according to sources close to the investigation, had worked for the bus company for 17 years without incident.
The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed that several Italian students perished in the accident.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi took to social media to express his sadness over the tragic accident.
He said his heart is “broken for the Italian victims and for the other young lives destroyed.”
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