The students were veiled this Saturday (22), in ceremonies at the Lions Club and at the Municipal Funeral, in São Joaquim da Barra; then the victims were buried in the city’s municipal cemetery
Thousands of people attend the collective of the 12 students from the University of Franca (UNIFRAN) who died in the of traffic in Nuporanga, São Paulo interior, on the night of last Thursday (20). The bodies were veiled this Saturday (22), in ceremonies held at the Lions Club and at the Municipal Funeral, both in São Joaquim da Barra, a city of 51,400 inhabitants.
At Lions Club, 10 victims were veiled. At the municipal wake, in more reserved ceremonies, two other families sailed two of the students killed in the accident. In a last farewell gesture, the present crowd accompanied the processions to the city’s municipal cemetery, where the 12 victims were buried.
The mayor of São Joaquim da Barra, Wagner Schmidt (MDB), decreed an official three -day mourning in the city and suspended all cultural, educational and artistic activities in the period.
The students died after a trolley truck banging against the bus they were on the Waldir Canevari highway, as the victims were returning from Franca, where they studied. In addition to the 12 deaths, the accident also left 21 other people injured.
The driver of the trailer, who had to be hospitalized, was charged in the act for escape, manslaughter and guilty bodily injury towards a motor vehicle. The driver’s defense claimed that he did not run away, only hid for fear of lynching.
“He did not have fractures, but he was quite injured, and when he heard shouts of ‘catches the driver’, he hid in a sugarcane field. We went there and he was introduced to the police at the scene of the accident. Police understood that there was evasion of the scene of the accident, but he was there, ”said lawyer Marcos Henrique Coltri.
According to the defender, a step on the track may have contributed to the accident. “It was not a frontal but lateral collision. The track is very narrow and has a very big step. Two size vehicles pass very close to each other. The driver said he ended up falling into the step and, upon returning to the track, the bucket hit the side of the bus, cut the whole side. ”
The São Paulo State Public Security Secretariat said the Civil Police investigates the causes of the accident.
*With information from Estadão Content
Posted by Carolina Ferreira
