LIMA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The mere mention of its name, the "Devil's Curve," would strike fear into the hearts of those who travel along a particularly winding tract of coastal Panamerican Highway in northern Peru, where numerous vehicles have fallen off the edge and into the abyss.
"They should close down this cursed roadway!" This is the response you always get when asking Peruvians about the latest tragedy on Tuesday, when 52 people lost their lives as a passenger bus collided with a tractor trailer and plummeted 100 meters off the cliff down the rocky shore below.
Pedro Quispe, 45, a regular driver on this route, told Xinhua that he has seen many accidents on the highway, along the sides of which numerous crosses with the names of victims have been planted.
Known as "Pasamayo Serpentine," the 15-km stretch of the roadway has 22 curves, making it one of Peru's most dangerous transit points.
Quispe, who lives in Lima, said he is often scared to travel the narrow highway, especially during holidays when traffic is heavy. In addition to steep drops, visibility is often obscured by morning and afternoon fogs coming in from the ocean.
"Truthfully, whenever I travel North, I leave as if going off to war, because the 'Devil's Curve' is really scary. Buses travel along the edge of the cliff and if the drivers aren't careful, a tragedy occurs like the one that took place this week," said Quispe.
Before the accident, the 58 people on board, including the driver, were returning to Peru's capital city of Lima after celebrating the start of the new year with their families.
The bus collided with a tractor trailer not far from the capital, then plunged off the cliff, killing 52 people and injuring six, according to the official figure.
Peruvian prosecutors on Friday ordered the driver to remain in preventive custody for nine months. Passenger buses and tractor trailers have been temporarily banned from this stretch of road to prevent further tragedies.
When Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski heard of the tragedy, he called for an immediate expansion of an alternate highway that runs farther inland to "eliminate the use of the old and very dangerous roadway through Pasamayo."
Since 1990, the "Devil's Curve" has seen some 26 accidents of varying severity, many involving vehicles that plunged off the cliff. Peru's mountainous geography, studded with cities that rise between 2,000 and 3,000 meters above sea level, makes highway travel a challenge.
According to Peru's National Road Safety Council, highway accidents in 2017 claimed a total of 772 lives, slightly less than the 812 deaths registered in 2016.
The Transport and Communications Ministry of Peru reported 89,304 roadway accidents in 2016, with 86,307 taking place in urban centers, and 2,997 occurring on highways.
