At least six people have died and 11 more have been injured after a bus driver is believed to have briefly fallen asleep at the wheel in southwestern Colombia.
The vehicle overturned on Saturday on a highway in the department of Huila, according to the National Police, whose report suggests the driver may have nodded off and triggered the incident.
Emergency response and traffic disruption
Footage circulating on social media showed emergency services tending to injured passengers, with distressed onlookers seen weeping beside the overturned bus on the Garzon-Neiva highway. The bus, which had been heading to the capital, Bogotá, was subsequently cleared from the road and traffic was able to resume.
According to the police report, authorities were still working to establish the precise circumstances surrounding the crash, though investigators believe the driver may have experienced a bout of "microsleep" — losing consciousness for just a matter of seconds.
Police and company statements
Col. Edwin Correa, director of the police's traffic and transportation division, stressed in the report that drivers must ensure they have had "adequate rest before beginning a journey."
None of the victims of the crash have yet been formally identified. The bus had set off from the community of San Vicente, in Colombia's southern department of Caquetá.
A statement released by the Huila Traffic and Transportation Police revealed that the driver "lost control" of the bus, apparently due to a "microsleep, resulting in the bus overturning onto its left side". On the subject of what caused the crash, Ariel Perdomo, manager of Cootranscaquetá, told El Tiempo: "It's difficult to speculate, so we're limiting ourselves to what the police tell us about this traffic accident."
