Jul 21, Kathmandu- According to the police, 22 people died and 16 were injured when a truck and a bus collided on the highway in the Andes region of Bolivia on Saturday.

According to the police, only 14 people have been identified among the dead so far. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile said that one of the dead was a Chilean.

Officials said that the driver of both the vehicles died.

The accident on the road connecting the Bolivian city of Patacamaya and the northern Chilean city of Tambo Quemado was the deadliest this year, according to Nilo Torrico, a traffic official.

The bus was heading to Chile through a busy commercial and tourist route connecting the two South American countries. "According to the preliminary investigation, it has been shown that the truck tried to overtake the bus from the wrong lane", said Torrico, the traffic officer.

"It appears that the truck violated the traffic rules and it was an unfortunate accident", he said.

Torrico informed that the rescuers are working to remove the dead bodies stuck in the crashed vehicles.

According to government statistics, an average of 1,400 people die each year in Bolivia due to traffic accidents. Road accidents in Bolivia seem to be mainly caused by driver negligence and poor roads and cars.

Fourteen people were killed and two others were injured in an accident on a busy road in southwestern Bolivia on April 4.