A triple collision on a remote road in the southern Peruvian Andes between a minibus and two trucks left at least 14 people dead, including the lead singer of the Bolivian band ‘Muñequita Flor y la nueva tendencia musical’, authorities reported on Thursday.
The accident occurred the day before on the Puno-Moquegua binational highway when the minivan carrying the members of the Bolivian musical group collided with a truck that was parked on the road and then with another truck, becoming trapped between the two larger vehicles.
The Moquegua provincial prosecutor's office had not yet identified all the bodies, but reported the death of 23-year-old Bolivian Felisa Mendoza, lead singer of the group ‘Muñequita Flor y la nueva tendencia musical,’ which was on its first tour of Peru. The singer had travelled for her tour with her mother, Isabel Aruquipa, 60, who also died.
Isabel Mendoza, the singer's sister, told local radio station Exitosa, ‘It was my sister's first contract to sing in Peru and my mother decided to accompany her.’
Peru's roads are notoriously dangerous.
In 2018, more than 50 passengers died when a bus veered off the road and fell into the Pacific Ocean 70 kilometres from Lima, one of the deadliest accidents ever recorded in the South American country.
In 2024, there were some 3,173 deaths as a result of traffic accidents, according to official data from the Death Information System (SINADEF).