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One killed, 20 injured in Korean tour bus accident in Mexico

May 27, 2014
bus

Ensenada Police and Mexican federal police arrived at the scene about 25 minutes after the accident and sent the injured to three hospitals around the area, including those in Ensenada and Rosarito.

A Korean tour bus carrying 26 passengers was overturned Saturday in Ensenada, Mexico, killing one and injuring about 20.

The Samho Tour & Travel bus, which had begun its two-day trip in Los Angeles at 9:10 a.m. to kick off Memorial Day weekend, passed through San Diego and Tijuana before it reached Ensenada. It was overturned at around 4:30 p.m. about 46 miles south of Tijuana.

Paul Noh, 61, the bus driver, died on the scene. Two passengers, one of them identified as Kim Tae-jung, were seriously injured, and 19 obtained minor injuries.

According to Samho, Noh saw an oncoming bus that had passed the centerline and swerved left to avoid it, causing the tour bus to overturn. It said Noh was a veteran driver who had done the two-day Mexico tour for almost 10 years.

Passengers Kim Bok-dong, 69, and Jang Sun-ho, 33, had a different story about the accident.

“The bus had climbed a steep hill, and suddenly it tilted left to right before rolling left and flipping with a ‘boom,’” they said. “The passengers screamed and the inside of the bus fell into chaos.”

Local police are currently investigating the accident.

Before paramedics arrived, a Korean doctor who was one of the passengers provided emergency aid to those who needed it, and passer-bys got out of their cars to help rescue the injured from inside the bus.

Ensenada Police and Mexican federal police arrived at the scene about 25 minutes after the accident and sent the injured to three hospitals around the area, including those in Ensenada and Rosarito.

Three Samho representatives, including President Shin Sung-kyun, arrived in Ensenada around 11 p.m. on Saturday.

Among recent bus tour accidents, the most fatal one occurred in 2012, when a Korean Vancouver tour bus fell off a cliff, killing nine and seriously injuring about 20.