QCOSTARICA – In total, nine people (so far) have been confirmed to have perished in the tragedy, dozens more are recovering from their injuries, and several in serious condition in various hospitals, traveling in the bus pushed off the road into an embankment some 100 meters by a landslide, Saturday afternoon, September 17, in the area on the Ruta 1 known as the Cambronero, at Los Chorros, 10 kilometers from San Ramón.
The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) confirmed their names:
55 people were injured in the incident.
The driver of the bus, who was among the survivors, told authorities that the tail end of the bus was hit by falling debris, resulting in a loss of control and over the edge of the road.
In a press conference at Casa Presidenctial on Sunday, Luis Amador, Minister of Public Works and Transport, denied having given the order to re-open the passage through Cambronero on Route 1 on Saturday.
On Friday, a landslide had occurred at another point on the Ruta forcing the closure of the Cambronero, which was reopened at 1:30 pm Saturday, hours prior to the tragedy.
The Minister, at the press conference and with President Rodrigo Chaves at his side, said his order was a request that the clean-up of (of the Friday incident) be completed as soon as possible.
“The instruction was that please continue the work to enable the road. I never issued an opening order, there is a protocol,” said the Minister.
Before the press conference, President Chaves said Amador “has my absolute support.” He added that if an investigation is opened into the tragedy in Cambronero, it would also be necessary to investigate situations that have occurred in the past on Ruta 32, the San Jose – Limon route.
In support of his Minister, Chaves said “for two years, Conavi has declared void tenders that would have made it possible to stabilize the weak points of this highway (…) There are very small groups that are trying to politicize this tragedy.”
Since the accident, Amador has faced severe criticism from users of various networks, among them alleging the Minister allowed the reopening of the Cambronero after the refusal of the Globalvia company that operates the Ruta 27 to suspend tolls in the face of the long weekend travel demand.
For his part, Amador denied any responsibility of the government and the bus company.
“These types of situations are unpredictable, they are not the fault of the Government, they are not the fault of the bus company. It is a situation that we cannot predict,” Amador argued against criticism on social networks.
“Yesterday (Friday, September 16) there was a landslide in Cambronero in a different place than the bus accident. That landslide, today Saturday 17 in the morning, had not finished clean-up. I requested that they please finish it as soon as possible knowing that route 1 is the only alternate route to route 27; also knowing that we had asked the concessionaire of route 27, Globalvía, to please suspend tolls in order to improve fluidity and they had not agreed to do so,” explained Amador.
Three days of national mourning was announced by Presidente Chaves.
Today, Ruta 1 in the area of the Cambronero remains closed. And may remain closed for days to come as crews continue with the clean up and extraction of the bus, while an analysis of the area is made.
