PANAMA CITY – Twenty-five died and another 17 were injured when a bus, a dump truck and an SUV crashed into each other on a stretch of road near Las Garzas de Pacora, 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of this capital, officials said Friday.

The director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Jose Vicente Pachard, told reporters that family members have now confirmed the identity of 22 of the bodies taken to the morgue and that three others are yet to be identified.

The injured were taken to two hospitals in the capital.

Five are in intensive care and another four have been released, medical authorities said.

Among the survivors is a 7-year-old boy whose father was killed in the tragedy.

Witnesses said the accident took place when the dump truck tried to pass the SUV and collided head-on into the bus, which was carrying 55 passengers.

Eduardo Ramos, one of the survivors, told reporters that he was riding on the bus in a second-row aisle seat and saw the dump truck coming towards them before the crash.

National police chief Gustavo Perez told the press that the accident occurred around 11:00 p.m. Thursday and that the drivers of the three vehicles involved in the accident were killed.

The director general of the National Civil Protection System, or Sinaproc, Arturo Alvarado, said on television that the agency had sent a bus to transport family members of people in the accident to the different Panama City hospitals to determine whether their relatives were dead, injured, or had escaped unhurt.

Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who went to the scene of the accident to get a view on the ground of the magnitude of the crash, told the press that he was extremely upset by the tragedy.

The president instructed the government to cover the costs of the funerals and the medical care of the injured in solidarity with the victims and their families.

For its part, the Panama City municipal government announced that it has canceled celebrations for the 490th anniversary of the founding of Old Panama, scheduled for Saturday. EFE