MEXICO CITY – The Mexican judiciary will charge the driver of a “monster truck” that plowed into the stands at an air show, killing eight people and leaving 86 others injured, with reckless manslaughter.The accident occurred Saturday during the three-day Festival Extremo AeroShow in the northern city of Chihuahua.
The driver, identified as Francisco Velazquez Samaniego, was to be informed of the charges during a special hearing at the hospital where he is being treated, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office, Carlos Gonzalez, said.
Although at the time of the incident, the driver’s breath smelled of alcohol, when breathalyzer tests were performed on him at the hospital they came back negative, Gonzalez told Radio Formula.
The driver of the vehicle, which has tires 1.5 meters (almost five feet) tall, was going over a pile of junked automobiles when he lost control and hit the stands.
Velazquez said that when he was driving over the junked cars he bounced around inside the vehicle and hit his head, which momentarily caused him to become disoriented, Gonzalez said.
“There was no fence, and if there had been he would have hit it,” added Gonzalez, who said that the investigation to assign responsibility in the tragedy will extend to the company that organized the event and “all the people who had anything to do” with the incident.
Of the 86 people injured, 21 remain hospitalized.
The Festival Extremo AeroShow features planes, balloons, motorcycle races and monster trucks
No comments:
Post a Comment