15 die in 2 road accidents in Peru

At least 15 people were killed and another 45 injured early Sunday in two separate highway accidents, Peru's Highway Police (Polcar) reported. The worst of the two crashes occurred around daybreak along the highway linking the towns of Huancane and Puno, in the high- plateau region of Puno, which borders neighboring Bolivia. As many as 12 people died in the crash caused by a triple collision between three passenger buses, and 15 were wounded. Mny of the victims appear to have been independent miners who were traveling aboard two vehicles that were hit head-on by a third. At least one of the buses was completely destroyed by the impact. Area police said they were able to identify the 12 victims, including a woman. Rescue workers were trying to retrieve all of the victims' bodies from the wreckage. The second accident occurred when a public transit van collided head-on with a truck, also around daybreak, but in the region of La Libertad, 550 km northwest of the capital Lima in the province of Viru. The collision left three people dead and 30 injured, six being in critical condition. The cause of the first crash was not determined as yet, but the second was reportedly due to heavy fog that blanketed the area.