By Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sanchez / Los Angeles Times
MEXICO CITY — Eight U.S. citizens were among the 12 people killed when a bus full of tourists from two cruise ships crashed en route to an archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
The fatal toll in Tuesday’s crash also included two Swedish nationals and a Canadian, according to officials in Mexico’s southern Quintana Roo state, where the accident occurred.
Also killed was a Mexican tour guide on board the bus, which veered off the highway and flipped over into the brush at about 10 a.m. Tuesday. The bus was headed to Mayan ruins at Chacchoben, authorities said.
Officials were not immediately releasing the identities of the casualties. A South Florida grandmother was among those killed, according to reports in Florida media.
The list of dead included one male minor, whose nationality was not disclosed.
Of the 12 fatalities, authorities said, 11 died at the scene and the other at a nearby hospital. Photos from the scene after the accident showed what appeared to be at least one body lying on the road.
A total of 13 passengers in the ill-fated bus remained hospitalized on Wednesday, including four U.S. citizens, four Brazilians, three Canadians and two Swedish nationals, according to Mexican officials. All were described as being “stable.”
The bus was transporting 31 people, including the driver, to the ruins from the port of Mahahual, 44 miles to the southeast, officials said.
Authorities provided no explanation as to why the vehicle drifted off the two-lane highway.
The driver suffered unspecified injuries and was being detained as investigators opened a criminal inquiry into the incident, officials said.
Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said 27 passengers from two of its ships, Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were on board the bus. Both ships were reportedly on seven-night Caribbean cruises, with a stop at Mexico’s so-called Mayan Coast.
Many cruise passengers docking in the Yucatan take daylong bus excursions to ruins and other sites on the peninsula.
Diplomats from the U.S. embassy and other foreign missions worked Wednesday to identify the dead and wounded and provide aid.
“We have staff on the scene and at local hospitals to assist victims and loved ones,” the U.S. embassy in Mexico said in a statement.
In a Twitter message, Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, expressed “our deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones or were injured in the horrible bus accident in Quintana Roo yesterday.”
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