A bus carrying 32 mostly foreign tourists through the Costa Rican mountains to a canopy tour during the country’s holiday week had an accident that left 28 injured, four seriously, according to the Red Cross.
The accident took place at approximately 10 a.m. Dec. 28 near San Ramón, northwest of San José. For reasons still under investigation, the bus overturned at the edge of the highway. Passengers told the daily Al Día recent rains might have contributed to the accident.
Because the door was obstructed after the fall, passengers were forced to break the glass to leave the bus, a Mercedes Benz vehicle belonging to the company Servicios Turísticos Turial, according to Al Día. U.S. citizen Betty Malone, 57, was trapped under a piece of steel inside the bus for more than an hour and a half while rescue workers tried to free her, San Ramón fire chief Wárner Rodríguez told the daily.
Red Cross spokeswoman Noemi Coto told The Tico Times that all the injured passengers were first taken to the hospital in San Ramón. The four passengers with “considerable injuries,” including Malone, were then transferred to the private Hospital CIMA in the western suburb of Escazú.
The rest of the passengers, from the United States, Costa Rica, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. suffered only minor injuries that did not require further medical attention.
The bus was traveling toward San José from the mountainous region of San Lorenzo de San Ramón, 100 kilometers west of the capital.
