14 Killed, Several Injured After Drowsy Driver Crashes Tourist Bus Into Billboard

At least 14 people were killed and 19 others were injured after a tourist bus pierced into a billboard on a highway on Indonesia’s main island of Java, police said.

The bus, carrying 31 passengers, all of them tourists from Benowo, an Indonesian village near Surabaya, was returning home after a weekend trip to Central Java’s Dieng Plateau, a popular holiday destination, when the deadly crash occured just after dawn on Monday. May 16.

The bus smashed into a billboard and then rolled over on the Mojokerto toll road, killing 14 people, police said.

"19 others sustained minor and serious injuries," Mojokerto police chief Rofiq Ripto Himawan told reporters. They are undergoing treatments in four hospitals in Mojokerto, mostly for broken bones.

The crash is being investigated, and no additional details were revealed at this time. However, police said the driver appeared drowsy before the crash, according to reports.

"This accident was caused by human error, the driver was exhaused or tired," Dirmanto, a spokesman for the East Java police who goes by a single name, told Metro TV.

Police are yet to question the driver, who suffered severe injuries.

Another deadly crash was reported in Peru, where a bus crashed into a ravine killing at least 11 people, including two children, and injuring another 34, authorities said on Sunday.

The bus was on the main Tayabamba highway, heading to Lima from the northern region of La Libertad, when it overturned and rolled 100 meters (330 feet) down a ravine in the Ancash region, on Saturday afternoon.

"We have registered 34 injured and 11 dead after an accident in the Ancash region," said a Civil Defense statement.

Police and local residents had to work until Sunday morning to free the bodies from the deadly wreckage. The injured were taken to the regional hospital in Sihuas province.

Road accidents are frequent in both these regions with poor safety standards and infrastructure. It is mainly due to speeding, poor road surfaces, lack of signs and minimal enforcement of rules by authorities.