The driver of the March 2016 bus accident in Freginals (Montsià), where 13 Erasmus students lost their lives, died last Wednesday of a heart attack, according to Catalunya Ràdio.
The death of the driver, Santiago Rodríguez, closes the process through criminal proceedings that was pending trial, according to his lawyer, Sergi Atienza, who trusts that the agreements that had been reached with the victims through civil proceedings will be maintained. Rodríguez was the only one accused by criminal proceedings and the Prosecutor's Office asked him for four years in prison.
The indictment argued that the bus driver disregarded safety regulations by getting behind the wheel of the vehicle tired and sleepy on the way back from the Fallas de València.
The bus was carrying a group of Erasmus students from the University of Barcelona who were returning from spending a happy weekend in the Fallas in Valencia and was driving north on the AP-7 at dawn when it suffered the accident. Several witnesses from the survivors reported that the bus was doing "unjustified" eses, acceleration and deceleration, and even stepping on the rough bands of the track.
As a result of the accident, 13 of the 59 occupants of the vehicle lost their lives, and another 26 people were injured of varying degrees. None of the victims were wearing seatbelts and most were in the rear of the vehicle.
The fatalities were seven Italian girls -three 22-year-olds, two 21-years-old, one 23-year-old and the other 25-, two German girls aged 20 and 25, a 24-year-old French girl, a 20-year-old Uzbek girl, a 24-year-old Austrian and a 23-year-old Romanian.
The public ministry accused the driver of 13 crimes of manslaughter for serious negligence and 26 crimes of injury for serious negligence for which he is asking for 4 years in prison; 6 years of deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds, with loss of driving license, and 6 years of special disqualification for the exercise of the profession of professional driver.
The judicial investigation of the accident has lasted for almost five years and the case has been filed three times by different investigators who have passed court number 3 of Amposta. After the appeals of the private accusations and the Prosecutor's Office, the Tarragona Court decided to reopen the case in October 2019 and ordered the judge to initiate the abbreviated procedure. The judge of the Tortosa Prison summoned all the parties on September 15, 2022 to agree on the start date of the trial.
