EIGHTEEN  PEOPLE  died and 37 were injured, many seriously when a bus  returning from Bocas del Toro to Panama  plunged from a bridge into  a river on Sunday afternoon March 5.

The accident happened at 2.15 pm  on the InterAmericana highway at  Ciénaga Vieja, in the Antón district, in Coclé when the driver lost control near the Health Center and plunged into the Las Guabas river.

Firemen and rescue teams from the Emergency Task Force  were called in from surrounding areas to assist passengers trapped inside the bus and helicopters arrived to help ferry the injured to  different hospitals in the region as local hospitals were quickly overwhelmed

[caption id="attachment_68904" align="alignright" width="217"] Ambulance helicopter[/caption]

Gilberto Samaniego National Police Commissioner of the West Panama Province, and a member of the Joint Task Force, said injured passengers were being transferred to the Nicolás Solano Hospital in La Chorrera because  the medical centers of Anton and Penonomé were  at their maximum capacity and could no longer  accept patients.

(Developing).