By Amelie Baron
MIAMI, May 4 (Reuters) - Authorities in southwest Haiti have revised the death toll from a road accident on Saturday saying that 17 people were killed and another 17 were injured.
The mayor of the city of Jeremie, Ronald Etienne, told Reuters on Saturday that 23 people had died and 17 had been injured when a truck carrying passengers overturned on the main highway.
A government civil protection official, Silvera Guillaume, said the initial death toll had been misreported by officials due to confusion after the accident as dead and injured were being transported to hospitals and a local morgue.
The accident occurred near the coastal town of Roseau, east of Jeremie, according to media reports. Most of the dead were from the town of d'Anse d'Hainault on the far western tip of the southern peninsula, the reports said.
The cause of the accident remains unclear.
Haiti's rural road infrastructure is in poor shape though foreign assistance after the 2010 earthquake has led to improvements on the national two-lane highway in the southwest. (Writing by David Adams)
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