Two New York college students and a U.S. healthcare worker died Wednesday in this Central American nation when their bus crashed while taking them to the airport to fly home after a volunteer mission helping poor Hondurans.
Isa Alvarado, spokeswoman for the Public Ministry morgue in Honduras, said the dead were three American women aged 20, 21 and 45. Their identities were not immediately released.
Twelve more Americans were injured. Reinaldo Canales, administrator for the Valle de Angeles Adventist Hospital, said they were in stable condition.
U.S.-based Global Brigades, which organizes international health and development missions, posted a notice on its website saying the accident involved a bus transporting “Columbia University students and other volunteers,” and that those killed were two students and a healthcare professional.
Columbia later issued a statement saying the vehicle was also carrying students from Barnard College, a women’s liberal arts institution that is affiliated with the university and is located just steps away from its campus in upper Manhattan.
The university wrote on its Facebook page that Columbia medical and support personnel would travel to Honduras overnight to provide additional on-site assistance.
“Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by this tragic loss. We will provide further information to the University community as it becomes available,” the statement read.
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