https://apnews.com/fef198e41d80448ba3285fcaaaeb8d30
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A bus apparently lost its brakes, then hit another vehicle at high speed and rolled over four times, killing at least 24 people and injuring 22 while smashing into
several houses along a highway near Ecuador’s capital early Tuesday, officials said.
The Colombian-registered bus was traveling to Quito when it hit a smaller vehicle in an area known as dead man’s curve at about 3 a.m., Ecuadorean authorities said.
Residents described hearing a thundering noise like the world crashing down on them as the bus struck their homes in Pifo, a community 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Quito.
Michelle Manay said she woke up and ran outside to see the carnage. “There were some people alive and others who weren’t,” she said.
Col. Wilson Pavon, head of Ecuador’s transit police, said the majority of the passengers aboard were Colombians, but some Venezuelans were also among the dead. Three people,
including two minors, traveling in the smaller vehicle also died.
A small fleet of ambulances and first responders rushed to the crash site about two hours from Quito before dawn. They found the severely wrecked bus overturned and several
homes adjacent to the highway damaged and strewn with metal debris.
Gen. Patricio Carillo of the Ecuadorean police told local reporters that it appeared the bus’s brakes failed, causing the driver to lose control and hit an oncoming car before crashing into
poles and houses as it rolled.
The investigation was continuing and the driver is hospitalized among the injured, Carillo said. Officials spent the early morning combing through the bus and removing the victims.
“Among the tasks is identifying the bodies of the dead and coordinating with authorities in Colombia and Venezuela for their return,” Carillo said.
It was the second bus tragedy in less than three days in Ecuador. On Sunday, 12 people were killed and 30 more were injured when a bus carrying fans of an Ecuadorean soccer team
overturned on a highway after a game.
Late Monday, relatives of the victims bid farewell to their loved ones at a collective wake held at the Barcelona club’s stadium in Guayaquil.
Police were still investigating the cause of that crash, but some witnesses told local media the bus carrying members of the Sur Oscura fan club that accompanies Barcelona to all its a
way games was seen trying to overtake other vehicles shortly before the crash.
On average, 13 people die each day on Ecuador’s roads, according to the highway safety organization Road Justice. It says roughly 95 percent are due to human error.
Some more updated information over (Spanish Sources) and I'm sorry for the translation errors. and I had to edit some words to make it less confusing. and if there's any Colombian or Ecuadorian Fp who can correct me if there's anything wrong
The Ecuadorian authorities are having issues to identify some of deceased since several of the dead were brutally mutilated and torn apart in the accident and they're askingto the Colombian authorities for help
"For now, reports say Ecuadorian authorities are requesting support from the Colombian government for the recognition of the bodies given the seriousness of the accident in which even several of the dead were mutilated."
Source (A and B): Habla hombre que aparece como dueño de bus accidentado en Ecuado..
The Bus driver's still alive (far we know), but there's not much report of his condition but he's guarded and surrounded by cops. The investigation is still active (it's still investigating whether it was a mechanical failure, but no wonder they're investigating driver negligence) Also the bus It didn't belong to any international transport line, but a contracted service to Quito.
The Ecuadorian authorities mentioned that the bus had crashed into one car first
"The Ecuadorian authorities confirmed this Tuesday in a press conference that the death toll is 24 and that there are three minors among them. The bus crashed twice in the early hours of the morning. First he was hit by a jeep-like vehicle in which a family was travelling, and as a result of the impact, the bus dragged the other car several metres forward. Four members of the same family died: one adult and three children travelling in the back.
After a few meters, the vehicle broke off and the bus advanced a little more than a kilometer until it overturned and crashed into several houses at the foot of the road and two power poles.
Source: https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/08/14/actualidad/1534251953_911950.html
The bus crashed where it was known as the Curve of Death (La Curva de la Muerte) which is known in Ecuador to be too deadly and complicated with too many curves at 2:00Am, and to more information A new investigation was opened by the Colombian authorities, as it was discovered that the bus didn't have any single international transportation permit to service and transist. and the bus driver doesn't even show up on the Colombian Unique Transport Record (Runt)
Colombian authorities found the owner of the bus by registration that show up via the Unique Transport Record (Runt) as José Luis Acevedo, And when they went to talk to him, Acevedo explain that he sold that bus in November last year to the person who bought it But whoever bought the bus never paid completely for the bus so Acevedo never finished the transfer of documents in the name of the purchaser and the guy completely ignored Acevedo's calls to get the bus back. (A)
José Luis Acevedo, who appears in the Unique Transport Registry (Runt) as the owner of the USA 251 license plate vehicle, said it was sold in November last year to a man in the city of Cali.
"The transfer has not been made because the gentleman has not finished paying for my vehicle. He had already been notified on more than one occasion that he was going to have his Bus impounded because he was not listening, unfortunately there was this accident," Acevedo said, adding that the authorities had already been given the documents certifying the transfer of the vehicle."
And to find more inconsistencies, was found on Bus the Single Contract Stratum Format (Transport-Company Contract of service operations far i know) by company Cooperativa de Transportes Especiales del Oriente, however the owner of company where the bus is from spoke to the authorities, explaining that this bus was in the process of being decommissioned from the company since December of last year (one month after the bus was purchased). and they had no idea how that bus got to the bus terminal and the contract between the bus and the company (Formato Único de Estrato del Contrato) is completely false. (B)
According to information sent by the Ecuadorian government to the Colombian Ministry of Transport, the vehicle had a contract and an extract of the contract issued by the company in question, signed on 10 August in Bucaramanga, signed by Gino de Jesús Moreno Pradilla, who appears as the company's legal representative in the document, and Claudia Ximena Orozco Córdoba, who agreed to travel with a contract worth 9 million pesos (50 % at the beginning of the journey and the remaining 50 % at the end) and with the following specific route: Neiva - Pitalito - Mocoa - Villa Garzón - La Hormiga - San Miguel - Ecuador - Lago Agrio and vice versa.
Faced with the accusations, Alberto Ramirez Maldonado, manager of Cootransportes Especiales del Oriente, explained that the vehicle was in the process of being disconnected from the company since December last year and that they do not know how the vehicle was dispatched from the terminals due to the fact that "the Single Contract Stratum Format (FUEC) is issued in Bucaramanga but the company's headquarters is in Cúcuta".
Ramirez added that the FUEC presented by the bus driver and that is analyzed by the authorities is false, because "it says that the vehicle left Neiva and the company is not based in that city either. We don't know who signed that document.
And to end The Ecuadorian government ordered the dismissal of all Ecuadorian transit authorities who authorized the bus to cross the border, violating all reports and rules and by complete irresponsibility
"Having detected serious errors in the control of the entry and transit of the bus that crashed through the country, I have ordered the separation of the Transit Police Director involved, the Director of the Transit Commission of Ecuador, and the entire chain of command that did not exercise proper control," said Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Lenin/status/1029465053018435587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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