Thirty people were injured in Bogota on Thursday when one of the city’s privately-owned buses crashed while racing a competitor.
According to injured passengers, the two buses, both driving the same route, were involved in a “penny-race”, a high-speed competition on who would be the first to pick up passengers.
The driver of the bus denied racing his colleague and told Caracol TV he was driving slowly, and the crash was caused when the brakes stopped working.
Twenty ambulances and a number of firetrucks were sent to the scene of the accident to attend the injured passengers.
Penny-races are common in Colombia’s largest cities, where bus drivers are on tight schedules and face penalties if they arrive late. To increase their income, bus drivers race each other to pick up as many passengers as possible.