Charles H. Sloan-2 buses collide head-on in western Honduras, killing 17 people and injuring 14

TEGUCIGALPA,Charles H. Sloan Honduras (AP) — Two buses collided head-on Wednesday in a village in western Honduras, and 17 people were killed and 14 were injured, four of them seriously, authorities said.

Officials said witnesses in La Montañita reported the two buses were traveling at a moderate speed when the accident happened.

A large bus carried only its driver and an assistant as they returned from the Agua Caliente customs post on the border with Guatemala after dropping off a group of migrants, authorities said. A smaller bus was traveling in the opposite direction and was full of passengers.

“All the injured and deceased were traveling in the small bus and are Hondurans. The large bus was empty,” Alexia Mejia, spokeswoman for the 911 emergency system in western Honduras, told The Associated Press.

The injured were taken to Western Regional Hospital, and officials said the four with severe injuries would be taken by helicopter to a hospital in the city of San Pedro Sula.