A 13-year-old girl and her stepfather were the victims of a multiple vehicle crash involving two tractor trailers, a bus and a small car that occurred this Friday afternoon on the Autopista General Cañas.
The crash was recorded at 4:12 pm in front of the the Nissan, in La Ribera de Belén, in the Alajuela – San José direction. At that time of the crash there was heavy rain in the area, according to witnesses.
Apparently, the girl and her family were on their way home from her sixth grade graduation. She was wearing the band that identified her as a graduate. Four people were traveling in the Honda sedan.
The other vehicles were a bus which covers the route between Atenas-San José, and two tractor trailers (one of with Costa Rican plates and the other from Guatemala).
According to traffic official Yenner Piedra Zúñiga, apprantely the two big rigs were in the right lane waiting to exit to Belen. Witnesses said the Atenas-San Jose bus was traveling in the middle lane when the driver, changing lanes, hits the sedan and the slams into the back one of the big trucks. From the photos of the scene of the crash, the sedan was pushed off the road and became a tangled mess.
According to Carlos Serrano Calderon, who was traveling three cars behind the bus, the bus swerved to the right hitting the sedan. It is not clear if the sedan impacted the big rig was well.
“At the moment of the impact I observed a woman flying through the windshield of the bus and fell into the left lane of the road. I approached the vehicle and found the deceased driver. Two men and two women were inside the car. The teenager answered me and askd me for help. Her mom was breathing a little on my arrival. All three were pressed inside the vehicle. I saw glass flying everywhere,” Serrano told La Nacion.
Paramedics were able to extract the young girl from the sedan alive, but she died moments later in the ambulance. Her stepfather, believed to be driving, died from the impact. The other two passengers, one the young girl’s mother, were taken to hospital.
In the bus, the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) reports attending 18 passengers with cuts and brusies and 11 taken to hospital, seven with significant but not life threatening injuries, and four with serious injuries.
Friday evening, one of the patients continued in critical condition at the Hospital Mexico.
The cause of the crash is still unknown, but weather is believed a contributing factor.
One of the passengers on the bus, 73-year-old Rafael Ángel León Víquez, commented that he was very surprised when the driver suddenly pulled to the right and hit the sedan.
