The Copsa bus 540 accident that derailed and overturned on the way to Maldonado on January 12 and caused the death of a 15-year-old girl continues to be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office, and 15 victims of the crash have already declared before the policeconfirmed to The Observer the lawyer Rafael Silva, who represents several passengers.
The injured occupants reported to the authorities that the bus had a “strange noise” and moved with a “undulating motion”reported El País and confirmed by Silva himself.
To these statements is added that the driver himselfwho had to undergo surgery for the injuries, “He maintains that the bus had a fault”declared his lawyer, Sebastian Serronin an interview with Telemundo (Channel 12).
“He informed me that he had already raised a situation with the company, there are even several users who have appeared in the last few hours and have expressed something to that effectbut I do not want to delve into this subject because it is very premature,” said the lawyer.
Serrón added that the 55-year-old driver is “very distressed” and “ashamed.” “What happened is a tragedy and he has a very significant psychological impact,” he said.
The driver sent an audio before the accident, which he reported The Observer days ago: “Here I go on Wave 540, everyone complains, you don’t know what this is. It jiggles everywhere. I don’t know whether to take it to 80, whether to take it to 100, take it to 95. I don’t know!”.
For Silva this audio is one more “item” so that the malfunction of the bus be “worked on as a hypothesis”.
Added to this is the fact that since Copsa workers union reported that the drivers they had already reported problems in the car. In addition to the 15-year-old girl who died, the accident left 20 people injured, six of them still hospitalized.
The general manager of the bus company, Javier Cardozo, told The Observer that the vehicle it had all the controls up to date and was in a condition to circulatesomething that ratified by the Ministry of Transport (MTOP), although the public body did not rule out that there could be a mechanical failure.
Judicial and fiscal background
According to Silva, the victims who filed a complaint for the accident “they are bound to have a pronouncement of justice”with the aim that “a good precedent is set at the judicial and fiscal level” if it can be proven that Copsa ignored complaints about a malfunction of the bus.
In addition, he indicated that these people “they have shown solidarity” with the family of the deceased teenager, since they understand that “Anyone could have been in his place.”
The lawyer represents this family, who indicated that “he still thinks this is part of a dream”. “It must be very difficult to put your girl on a bus to go on vacation and then not come back to her house,” she added.
