SAN FRANCISCO, March 20, (THEWILL) – Reports that at least 14 European university exchange students have died in a motorway coach crash near Tarragona in north-east Spain has been confirmed.
At about 6am on Sunday the driver lost control near Amposta, Tarragona, and the vehicle crossed the central reservation and collided with an oncoming car.
Jordi Jané, the Catalan Interior Minister, in a statement revealed that the victims were aged 22 to 29 and were of various nationalities.
Jané confirmed that 14 of the 57 passengers were dead adding that the remainder did not appear to be seriously injured but the coach driver is among the survivors.
“The majority are Erasmus students of various nationalities. We are trying to draw up a list of the victims,” he said.
“Everything points to human error being the cause of the accident, though it’s too early to say.
“There’s no reason to think there was a problem with the road itself.”
He was unable to confirm reports that all the students were at the University of Barcelona.
The coach was the last in a group of five buses returning to Barcelona after celebrating the Fallas festivities in Valencia but the occupants of the other coaches were unaware of the accident until they arrived in Barcelona.
Story by David Oputah
