By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 17 2002 (IPS)

The driver, the police and even the passengers themselves shared responsibility for the tragedy in the Argentine province of Catamarca in which 47 people died when a bus careened off a 30-metre cliff.

Preliminary investigations found Tuesday that the late Sunday accident in Catamarca, in Argentina’s northwest, was the result of a lethal combination of the driver’s inexperience, a lack of vehicular inspections, corruption among police agents, and the passengers’ apparent willingness to bribe the traffic police to allow the bus to continue on its way, despite irregularities.

The accident was just one more example of the dangers arising from inadequate government controls and the lack of harsher penalties for traffic infractions, say local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which blame these circumstances for the nearly 8,000 road deaths reported annually in Argentina, a country of 36 million.

The bus was travelling Sunday night on a road on the El Totoral mountainside on the way to the neighbouring province of Tucumán, carrying 74 passengers in spite of the posted capacity of just 52.

Testimony from the few survivors indicated that the vehicle was traveling at high speed down the mountain road, and that the brakes failed.

The driver reportedly shouted to the passengers “Hang on! The brakes have gone out!” just moments before the bus went off the cliff and tumbled some 150 metres down a ravine until it was finally brought to a stop by trees and brush. It was two hours before ambulances and rescue teams arrived.

“The bus was packed and there were children riding on their parents’ laps. Some had even brought chairs to sit in the aisle,” said Argentina del Vall, who survived the accident but lost her 12-year-old son.

The passengers were Roman Catholic residents of Tucumán on their way home from the shrine of the Virgin of Catamarca, travelling in a bus belonging to the Oyola company.

Tucumán province’s Secretary of Transport, Enrique Romero, said Tuesday that Oyola’s vehicles were not authorised to operate by the provincial government or the national commission that regulates transportation.

The accident revealed a lack of oversight, driver training and awareness of the dangers of failing to respect the regulations on the part of the passengers, “who became accomplices in a crime in which they ended up as the main victims,” said Alicia Copello, director of the Asociación Luchemos por la Vida (Let’s Fight for Life Association), an organisation dedicated to preventing road accidents and promoting driver education.

The bus driver’s licence had reportedly expired, the vehicle did not have the obligatory insurance, and it had failed to pass the requisite mechanical inspections. Nevertheless, it made it through traffic police checkpoints, supposedly thanks to a collective bribe by the passengers.

“A police officer got on the bus and explained to us that the vehicle had no insurance and would have to be impounded. But everyone started shouting ‘no!’ and we collected two pesos (60 cents of a dollar) each to give to the police,” said Del Vall in the hospital room where she was recovering from her injuries.

Del Vall survived for hours trapped under the wreck. “My son was thrown out and slammed into a tree trunk,” she said, after explaining that he had been riding on her lap because he did not have a seat.

The police from the province of Catamarca suspended the officers who allowed the vehicle to continue on its way despite the irregularities involved and the fact that the number of passengers exceeded capacity.

Judge María del Milagro Vega said the driver, who is in a coma, was considered chiefly responsible for the accident.

Survivors said the conductor had been urging the driver to slow down.

A study carried out in Buenos Aires by the Asociación Luchemos por la Vida found that professional taxi, truck and bus drivers were involved in three times more accidents than people driving privately owned cars.

“The statistics show that the lack of controls, sanctions and proper training of professional drivers continues to cause a great number of deaths, even with the complicity of passengers, who are blind to the gravity of their decisions,” said Copello.

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