The magistrate of Criminal Court No. 1 of Tortosa has closed the criminal proceedings opened in 2016 against the driver of the bus that crashed in Freginals (Montsià), on the AP-7, where 13 Erasmus students died. The judicial decision comes as a result of the natural death of the driver, two weeks ago.
The driver was the only person accused by criminal proceedings and the Prosecutor's Office asked him for four years in prison for thirteen alleged crimes of reckless homicide. The indictment, which is now without effect, reasoned that the driver disregarded safety regulations. The prosecution argued that the driver got behind the wheel of the bus knowing that he was tired and sleepy when he was preparing to return from the Fallas in Valencia, in March 2016, in the direction of Barcelona. His driving was erratic for many minutes, with braking and hitting the steering wheel, before the accident occurred.
The bus ended up overturning on the AP-7 motorway, at dawn, as it passed through Freginals. Thirteen Erasmus students, seven of them Italian, lost their lives almost instantly. About twenty suffered injuries. The bus driver was seriously injured but was able to recover. Two weeks ago he suffered a heart attack and passed away.
The victims were part of a group of students from the University of Barcelona (UB) who had traveled to experience the Fallas in Valencia.
The insurance company has already compensated the families of the victims, through civil proceedings. The families of the victims continued as a private prosecution through criminal proceedings that have now been closed, without any option of recourse, due to the sudden death of the driver.
The judicial investigation was opened in 2016, after the accident, but the investigation has been delayed over time for various reasons. It was archived three different times at the hands of the three judges who have investigated the criminal case. Until, finally, as a result of the appeals of the private accusations and the prosecution, the Tarragona Court reopened the case in October 2019. Now only the oral trial was pending with the driver as the only defendant.
