An 18-year-old girl died this morning after being hit by a truck on Provincial Route 92, Santiago del Estero. The incident occurred after the vehicle hit a group of students from the Agrotechnical School of Quimilí, who were descending from a school bus.
According to police sources, the fatal accident occurred this Tuesday around 6 in the morning, about 14 km from the aforementioned town. The young people, in their last year of high school, were on their way to a meeting in The Pirpintos, a town in the Copo Department.
When the officers arrived at the scene of the incident, they found a group of injured people next to the bus, so ambulances and medical personnel were requested.
The injured were taken to a local hospital, where Alejandra Paola Inés Gomez (18) lost his life. The young woman, who was in the sixth year of high school, was the daughter of a pastor and she was part of the choir of an evangelical church.
In addition to the fatal victim, 17 other people were injured. Four of them had to be referred to the capital city of the province to receive medical attention.
According to the driver of the Mercedes Benz school bus, who had a car hitched from behind, he made the decision to stop the vehicle due to a mechanical defect and it remained on the asphalt strip “with beacons.”
In that sense, the passengers (both students and teachers) began to get off to the side of the bus to go to the bathroom. It was at that moment when the truck passed, ramming “at high speed” and along the shoulder, leaving several people seriously injured.
“The bus was stopped and the boys had gone down to the shoulder. According to what they tell us, A truck that was coming in the same direction as the bus, instead of taking the entire left shoulder that it had, turned to the right, where the agrotechnic guys were at that time. They made signs to him and everything because the truck came hard, and he took away several boys, along with teachers who were there,” said Ricardo Torres, a teacher at the institute, in dialogue with Radio Panorama. The teacher also stated that around 38 students and four teachers were traveling in the vehicle.
A passenger on the school bus, who fortunately did not suffer serious injuries, provided more details of the moment in conversation with The Liberal: “The vehicles were braking, but that truck came very hard and dragged everyone. The driver told the police that he had no way because on the other side there was also a vehicle with beacons and that is why he went down to the shoulder”.
According to police sources, the driver of the truck stopped driving about 300 meters after the impact. The prosecutor on duty, María Eugenia Calegari, ordered the arrest of both drivers and a blood test, as well as the passenger of the van.
Meanwhile, the gray Toyota Hilux truck ended up with its front hood destroyed, as well as parts of its body. The vehicle was driven by a 39-year-old man, residing in Chaco, while his companion was a 23-year-old young man from the same province. Both are dedicated to television network connection in a private company.
Criminalistics personnel carried out mechanical work on both vehicles, interviews were taken with a witness to the incident and the vehicles were seized. In addition, an autopsy was requested on the body of the fatal victim. The cause is classified as “homicide and serious negligent injuries in a traffic accident.”
