At least 71 people are dead after a truck carrying a wedding party plunged off a bridge in Africa. Local authorities said the accident happened on Sunday, Dec. 29, when the truck fell off the Gelan Bridge in the Sidama state of Ethiopia, according to the Associated Press and BBC News .

An Ethiopian hospital director says at least 66 people have died after a truck packed with wedding guests plunged into a river.

Lemma Lagide, the medical director at Bona General Hospital in the southern Sidama region, reported that 64 people died at the scene, while two others passed away at the hospital. He added that patients requiring advanced critical care were transferred to a larger hospital in Hawassa.

Road accidents are common in Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, where roads are often poorly maintained.

STORY: An accident in Ethiopia killed 71 people on Sunday after a truck packed with passengers plunged into a river.Reuters arrived at the scene of the crash Monday, and found people looking down at the accident site from a bridge.

At least 71 people have died in Ethiopia after a truck packed with passengers plunged into a river, according to the spokesperson for the southern Sidama regional government and a statement.

At least 71 people have died in a road accident in southern Ethiopia, according to local authorities. A truck packed with passengers plunged into a river in Sidama state, some 300km (186 miles) south of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, the regional communication bureau said in a statement late on Sunday.

At least 71 people are dead in southern Ethiopia after the truck they were on plunged into a river. Officials say the overloaded vehicle, part of a wedding caravan, missed a bridge on a road full of twists and turns.