Five die in gap-year bus crash
Five British women travelling in South America were killed after the bus they were travelling in crashed in Ecuador earlier this month.
The women, four teenage gap-year students and their guide, died after a lorry crashed into their bus on a road between the Ecuadorian towns of Manta and Jipijapa. 12 other Britons were injured in the collision alongside a French national and their Ecuadorian driver. According to local police, the lorry driver fled the scene.
Indira Swann (18), Rebecca Logie, Emily Saddler, Lizzie (all 19) and their guide, 26-year old Sarah Howard, were killed on 12 April 2008 after the collision at around 6.30pm local time.
The group were travelling from the Ecuadorian capital Quito and the small, Pacific-coast village of Puerto Lopez. The bus had been travelling all day and was approximately 30 minutes from its destination when the accident occurred.
They were three weeks into a 15-week “Inca and Amazon venture” run by Warwick-based gap year organisation VentureCo which was due to take them through Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Bolivia.
Mark Davidson, chief executive of VentureCo, was surprised that the accident occurred on what is a comparatively safe road.
“By the time you get to the coast the terrain is much more undulating, the roads are straighter and the roads are newer," he said. "It's most unexpected to have an accident there. This was an Ecuadorian driver who was reliable, and he was on the home run. We have used that company for many years.”
Ecuadorian police have begun an investigation into the crash which has been welcomed by the acting British Ambassador to the South American country.
According to the World Health Organisation, Latin America has some of the world’s highest rates of road fatalities. A disproportionate number of the 1.2 million road deaths per year happen in South America, which is typified by poor roads, dangerously maintained vehicles, excessive speeding and a high instance of drunk driving.
One survivor, Sarah Martin, said that she hoped the accident would not stop young people from taking a gap year before university.
"I think a year out has a huge amount of benefits, and I think a tragic accident shouldn't be stopping people from travelling," she said during a press conference.
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