Dozen Cruise Passengers Reported Killed in Mexico Bus Crash

More than 10 travellers from cruise ships that left from Miami and Fort Lauderdale were killed when a transport conveying them to Mayan ruins in eastern Mexico flipped over on an expressway early Tuesday, authorities said.

A South Florida grandmother and her 11-year-old grandson appear to be among the casualties, as per relatives.

Fanya Shamis, 78, of Coconut Creek, was one of the travellers killed on the transport, as per her grandson, Benjamin Shababo, 18, of Hollywood. He said his cousin may likewise have passed away in the crash.

His uncle, Moises Behar, of Lorton, Va., is in the hospital and relatives don’t know where his aunt, Anna Behar, or another cousin, 15, are, he said.

“We don’t have really concrete information,” Shababo said. “We’re all scared. It’s just really scary to process this in my head that possibly something really bad happened to them.”

Behar’s mother, Berta Behar, said she got a similar news after her child called her sibling from a Mexican doctor’s facility.

“I don’t know what to do. We are going crazy trying to find out,” Berta Behar said. “We haven’t received any calls from Royal Caribbean to inform us of what happened.”

Seven Americans and two Swedes were among the harmed, Quintana Roo state Civil Defense representative Vicente Martin said. He said specialists hadn’t yet settled the nationalities of the deceased.

Video pictures from the scene demonstrated the transport on its side in the vegetation of the two-path roadway, with a few survivors lying on the asphalt and others strolling around.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said in an announcement that travellers from two of its ships, the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were engaged in the crash. The organization communicated its sympathies and said it was helping with restorative care and transportation.

The Serenade of the Seas left from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale Friday and the Celebrity Equinox left from the Port of Miami on Saturday. The two boats are on seven-night Caribbean cruises.

Read the full article from the Sun Sentinel at

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-mexico-tourist-bus-crash-20171219-story.html

Staff Writer Tonya Alanez contributed to in the original report.