Investigators have already began engaged on the bottom to reconstruct the accident. The brokers of the ERAT (Traffic Accident Reconstruction Team) displaced from Madrid to Galicia, arrived early this Wednesday within the Cerdedo-Cotobade space the place the bus accident that induced the loss of life of seven folks occurred.
They are surveying the realm with surveying tools and have lower off entry to the bridge to file video. There can also be a crew of drones arrived from Asturias to hold out a research of the bridge in three dimensions. “We are doing a visible inspection to see traces or proof, in addition to the adherence of the asphalt on the accident web site. A laser scanner is getting used to hold out a three-dimensional research of the place”, defined Roberto Prado, from the Civil Guard of Pontevedra.
In addition, after the bus was withdrawn from the Lérez riverbed this Tuesday, they’ve already been capable of entry the tachograph information. “The information from the tachograph and in addition from the bus’s ABS and GPS are being studied,” Roberto Prado clarified. To full the investigation, a press release will even be taken from the surviving passenger and the driving force. The latter has already been discharged from hospital and He examined destructive for alcohol and drug assessments.
Bad climate circumstances on Christmas Eve
One of the causes that would have induced the accident was dangerous climate circumstances. On Christmas Eve it rained closely within the space. But the residents of Cerdedo-Cotobade denounce that shortly earlier than the bridge a velocity bump types on the highway when it rains. “There a pocket of water is shaped that causes the highway to rise after which when the pocket passes, the highway returns to its regular state. On Monday, upkeep made some holes for the water to come back out,” says Javier Lois, head of Civil Protection for the municipality.
Drivers additionally warn that aquaplaning is frequent in that space. “There the water crosses from the highest of the highway, even on days like yesterday, when the highway was dry and at that time it crossed plenty of water,” Lois denounces. “We should admit that on Saturday afternoon it rained rather a lot, pockets of water shaped on any highway. But it’s true that at that time plenty of water falls after a latest work that was achieved and might be one of many causes of aquaplaning. Without raining low water, the streams exceed the highway and go over it. The neighbors denounce it and it’s an goal truth”, complains Jorge Cubela, mayor of the municipality.
They denounce the dangerous circumstances of the highway, the place there have already been extra accidents
From the Cerdedo-Cotobade City Council they emphasize that they’ve been asking for that highway to be mounted for months, after a number of accidents occurred. “On repeated events we demanded that the Ministry comprehensively enhance this highway. I even proposed a entrance of mayors to help the mandatory enchancment of this freeway, the N-541”, affirms the mayor. Jorge Cubela admits that this isn’t the time for reproaches as a result of now we have to fret in regards to the victims and their households, however he recollects that he has already warned on a number of events in regards to the hazard of the highway. “In September there was an accident on the entrance to the bridge. We despatched a press release as a result of there have been three accidents in the identical week,” denounces the councilor. He hopes that the accident will a minimum of serve to lastly repair the highway. “Let’s hope that this rattling occasion a minimum of serves to make the upper authorities notice {that a} important funding have to be made right here, they don’t seem to be value patching up. It is vital that there be a complete enchancment of this route, it’s not value patching it up”.
How does this elite crew work?
The ERAT (Traffic Accident Reconstruction Team) of the Civil Guard is taken into account the elite within the investigation of highway accidents. There is a gaggle in Madrid and one other in Mérida and so they analyze about 35 accidents a yr. They intervene when an accident could be very critical or complicated and when required by a court docket as a result of it considers that an investigation ought to be carried out into what occurred.
In a primary part, they accumulate information on all of the components concerned within the accident: the highway, the automobiles and the folks concerned. Signage, grade, superelevation, and visibility are inspected. They additionally research the place of the automobile after struggling the accident and the traces or stays which will have been left. In this case, they’ll examine the bus to examine the state of the seat belts and airbags and any deformations it presents.
They additionally research the “human issue”, the psychophysical circumstances through which the drivers concerned within the accident had been discovered and the autopsies, to narrate the accidents to the locations of affect within the automobiles. This crew has carried out reconstructions in related instances such because the accident involving the bullfighter Ortega Cano through which one individual died or the accident involving a bus in Cieza (Murcia) in 2014, with 14 deaths after falling down an embankment.
They use a laser-scanner with which investigators can digitize in three dimensions the place the place the accident occurred. With these information, a cloud of factors is created through which any sort of measurement (of the highway and of the automobiles) may be carried out with millimeter precision. Finally, with a simulation program, the accident is recreated realistically from completely different views, together with the driving force’s imaginative and prescient.