According to the driver’s account, at least 2 kilometers ago the mule tract failed him and it had gone through other tunnels ‘blown up’. A worker who was on the road had to run when he saw the vehicle coming.
Colombia News.
In the Los Venados Tunnel on the Túnel de la Línea road that connects Cajamarca, Tolima with Calarcá, in Quindío where a serious accident occurred that left 8 dead, 32 injured and 18 vehicles involved, and the driver of the mule tract who was left without brakes spoke from the hospital.
There were at least 17 who were stopped in the middle of the congestion in that section of the entire work of the Line Tunnel, when a switch pushed them and they ended up crowded together without many passengers and drivers being able to escape.
The Traffic Police and other authorities confirmed the same day of the accident and inside the tunnel, it leaves 7 dead and 33 wounded, some seriously. An eighth victim died in a medical center.
Hours later it was confirmed that due to the route made by the mule tract, the shape of the collision and how the cars were left, it was an impact at high speed.
However, that speed would come from before losing the brakes.
It would be a mechanical failure of the brakes, but they also preliminarily found that the vehicle was miscalibrated and that there may have been human error.
It happened ‘flown’ and the worker had to run
The mule tract, according to the version of the same driver and what has been confirmed with videos of the entire corridor of the central Cordillera that is monitored, had been going at high speed for several kilometers.
Therefore, in one of the tunnels before the tragedy, one of the workers in the area stopped on the road to signal to the driver that he should slow down.
The worker running
He went to go up in the upper part of the tunnel thinking that the truck would go to this embankment.
However, there, the truck with 17 tons of cargo was already without brakes.
When the road worker saw that the mule was leaving the tunnel very quickly, he ran out and tried to get on the other road, thinking that the driver would maneuver to go to the embankment on the side of the road.
But nevertheless, went on long and immediately they began to give notice.
The worker stopped the other vehicles that were going towards the same tunnel, noticing that the mule was out of control.
Some vehicles and people getting out managed to move. But in the Tunnel los Venados, there was a traffic jam.
In the work of the central Cordillera road corridor, which included tunnels, viaducts and the dual carriageway and which has had criticism due to the slopes and “lack of measures such as braking ramps”, it has an emergency exit to evacuate cars but in the Line Tunnel, which is more than 8 kilometers long.
That is, the largest.
I hit the brakes and it didn’t work »
“When I passed the toll, I started to pick up the hook and put the car in fourth gear, the air needle began to go down, I started to edge and I stepped on the brakes and they didn’t work,” he explained, adding that it was “weird because the car hadn’t not fucking speed ».
He said he tried to get the car out of the wheelhouse, but “the wall was too high.”
The shuttle did not allow the passage, and on the other was the abyss, he found the tunnel and could not avoid the line of cars.
“I don’t even know why I’m still here if the car got stuck to the seat,” he said.
He was left unconscious by the mood of the motorcycle, imprisoned, when he reacted there were screams and detalente several vehicles between cans.
He explained that he was carrying a “light” load of tires (17 tons) and that he was going from Cali to Barranquilla.
He had already made a trip to Barranquilla, Cartagena “the car keeps well, it is maintained”, where even on some occasions “I have gone to 120 and the brakes worked well.”
Although he did not explain at the time of the accident how fast he was going, nor did he refer to any failure on the road that had caused him to lose control.
Therefore, the rigorous investigation should determine what happened.
This case goes to judicial investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office, therefore the driver is linked to the process.
Read also:
18 vehicles involved in the tunnel of the line accident: brakes, lack of controls? speeding?
