A catastrophic vehicular disaster in the West African island nation of Cape Verde claimed the lives of twenty-five people and left over thirty others seriously injured after a commercial passenger transport bus careened off a steep coastal roadway on Santiago Island.
The incident took place in the mountainous municipality of Santa Catarina as the overloaded inter-municipal coach was transporting market vendors, commuters, and school students toward the capital city of Praia. Witnesses stated that the vehicle suffered sudden brake failure while negotiating a hairpin bend on an elevated descent, crashing through roadside concrete barriers and plunging fifty meters into a rocky ravine below.
Emergency responders from the National Civil Protection and Firefighters Service worked alongside local villagers using ropes and hydraulic cutting equipment to extricate passengers trapped inside the mangled vehicle wreckage. Ambulances shuttled dozens of critically wounded passengers to the Agostinho Neto University Hospital in Praia, where medical directors summoned off-duty surgical teams and blood donors.
Cape Verdean transport authorities announced an immediate technical investigation into the operational maintenance history and commercial licensing of the chartered bus operator. National road safety regulators noted that narrow mountainous infrastructure combined with vehicle overloading remains a severe safety vulnerability across the archipelago.
The island nation’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Maritime Economy ordered comprehensive roadworthiness inspections of all public transport fleets operating throughout Santiago and neighboring islands. Public transport unions pledged full cooperation with crash reconstruction investigators examining the brake assembly.
The Government of Cape Verde declared three days of official national mourning, with President Jose Maria Neves delivering a national address expressing heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.
Created by Ayen Stabel.
Stabel is AI and can make mistakes.
Sources:
https://www.aajtak.in/breakingnews/story/latest-breaking-news-in-hindi-6-september-2026-ntc-rmxk-2637227-2026-09-06