Dozens killed after bus driver ‘falls asleep at wheel’ and swerves into opposite lane

A BUS driver ‘fell asleep at the wheel’ before slamming into two buses and a truck on a major highway, killing dozens.

AT least 37 people have been killed and more than 84 injured after a bus driver allegedly fell asleep at the wheel and swerved into the opposite lane, hitting two other buses and a truck.

Police chief Gen. Jorge Flores said the most seriously injured were helicoptered to Lima from the scene in Huarmey some 200 miles north of the capital.

Police say a bus owned by the company Murga Serrano strayed into the oncoming lane and slammed head-on into the first of the other two buses. The truck then plowed into the wreckage.

Debris ... dozens of people died after a bus swerved into the opposite lane and slammed into two buses and a truck. Picture: AP Photo/Magali Estrada

Survivors said it took emergency crews about three hours to reach the scene, according to local media. The government sent five medical specialists to Huarmey to help the small clinic there care for the injured.

The crash happened about 4.30am Monday local time on the Panamerican Norte highway near the coastal town of Huarmey.

The head of the highway police, Orfiles Bravo, said the Murga bus “was split in two”.

Television images showed bodies sprawled out on the pavement after the crash.

Fatal ... rescue workers say the bus driver fell asleep at the wheel when the bus crashed. Picture: AP Photo/Magali Estrada

Forty-two passengers on the Murga bus were members of a Christian evangelical church, the World Missionary Movement, who were returning from a convention in Lima.

Peruvian media reports said the injured and stranded passengers also included Haitian and Senegalese travellers.

It was Peru’s deadliest road accident since October 2013, when 51 people were killed near Cuzco when an overloaded truck fell into a ravine.

Peru’s roads are notoriously dangerous. In the first half of last year, 1406 people were killed in road accidents. The full-year death toll was 3590 in 2013 and 4138 in 2012.