SANTIAGO – At least nine people, including an infant, were killed and another 11 sustained injuries after three vehicles crashed in southern Chile’s Lake District.
The accident involving a car, a trailer and a van, loaded with 17 patients who had undergone dialysis in Valdivia, occurred around 2 p.m. local time along a two-lane road linking the towns of Máfil and Valdivia.
“Nine people are dead, five men and four women, and there are people with different degrees of injury,” the prefect of Valdivia, Hector Moreno, said.
A car, carrying two adults and a 10-month-old infant, lost control and collided with a trailer traveling in the opposite direction, the daily El Mercurio Online reported.
According to the investigation, the trailer then veered into the opposite lane and sideswiped a van that was taking patients home after their dialysis treatment at a health center in Máfil, 800 km south of Santiago.
The injured were taken to area hospitals.
An aerial photo of the accident site showed the battered trailer lying on its side on the road, as rescue workers attended to the scene.
