THE TRAFFIC death toll on Panama roads since the start of the year climbed to 15 on Friday, January 16 when a tour “busito” carrying 17 passengers plunged 15 meters down a cliff in the mountainous district of Altos del Maria in the Chame district.

Two passengers were killed and 15 injured, two of them seriously reported El Siglo. The seriously injured were taken by helicopter to Hospital Santo Tomas. Six ambulances and firemen equipped with cutting equipment rushed to the scene and were assisted by workers from a nearby Melo plant.. Unconfirmed reports say that the driver of the bus lost control after a brakes failure.
Less than an hour earlier two judicial system officers were killed in Quebrada Ancha when their official car, heading for Colon, collided with the front of a truck on the Transistmica highway. and his partner, The passenger Rosa Chavarria flew through the windshield and the driver Innocent Esteban Lopez Campos, 53, died in the car.