On the morning of this Tuesday, January 27, in the southwest of the country. A violent traffic accident that occurred on the Pan-American Highway, exactly in the sector known as Río Cabuyal, township of Pescador (municipality of Caldono), left as a preliminary result the death of seven people.

The accident involved a public service bus and a tractor-trailer type cargo vehicle, which collided head-on with such magnitude that both vehicles ended up engulfed in flames.

The initial report from the traffic authorities and the relief agencies that arrived at the scene indicates that, after the impact, a strong explosion occurred that made rescue efforts for the passengers difficult.

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The accident caused a large fire that consumed a large part of the vehicle structures, while several seriously injured people were urgently transferred to healthcare centers in Piendamó and Popayán.

Although initially there were three fatalities, as the hours passed and the work of the firefighters on the scene, the death toll apparently rose to seven.

The investigators’ first hypotheses suggest that the accident may have been caused by an alleged lane invasion by one of the drivers on this stretch that connects Popayán with Cali.

The area was cordoned off by the Traffic Police and the National Army, while criminalistics units carried out the technical inspection of the corpses and the collection of evidence. Due to the severity of the emergency and the persistent fire, the corridor remains under total closure.

The local administration of Caldono and the Cauca Police commanders asked travelers to avoid passing through this sector and take alternative routes, since the work of cleaning the road and removing the damaged vehicles could take several hours.

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