SANTO DOMINGO LOS OCOTES, Guatemala (AP) 鈥� Hours before dawn, Julio Arrivillaga and Catalina P茅rez Molina boarded a bus with other residents in the center of this humble village for what should have been an hour-long ride to Guatemala鈥檚 capital.

For Arrivillaga it was a daily trip to his job counting fruit in the country鈥檚 largest market. For P茅rez Molina, it was her occasional dash to the capital to buy produce for the tamales and roasted corn she sold.

But along the way their , killing them and more than 50 others.

On Tuesday, families in Santo Domingo Los Ocotes, accompanied by , began saying goodbye to their loved ones amid a three-day period of national mourning.

Guatemala鈥檚 黑料吃瓜网 Forensic Science Institute said Tuesday that 54 people had died in the crash. A day earlier, the Public Ministry said 53 people had died at the site of the crash and two more at a hospital and had not reconciled the numbers Tuesday.

鈥淚 still don鈥檛 understand what happened,鈥� Arrivillaga鈥檚 wife Irma Catal谩n said Tuesday. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 accepted it. I don鈥檛 know what my life will be now.鈥�

Videos circulated online of the moments before the Monday accident show the bus apparently speeding, running stoplights and colliding with multiple vehicles before leaving the roadway and plunging into the ravine where it landed upside down beneath a bridge and semi-submerged in dark sewage-polluted waters.

In Santo Domingo Los Ocotes, funerals were scheduled over two days.

P茅rez Molina was among those buried Tuesday.

Christian P茅rez, her 25-year-old son, said he was still in shock at the loss of his mother. He鈥檚 been confined to a wheelchair since a motorcycle accident seven years ago, and she was the one who sustained their family.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 deny it, her loss really hurts,鈥� P茅rez said.

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