The Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police indicted three people in the investigation over the accident with a bus from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), in Rio Grande do Sul, which, in April.
The driver of the vehicle, the head of the University Transportation Center and the representative of the company that hired the drivers were held responsible. The bus, which carried students and teachers ,.
According to the delegate responsible for the case, José Romaci Reis, the driver acted with recklessness and malpractice. “He entered the mountain without proper speed. He triggered the engine brake keys, just could no longer reduce the march because he was already in improper speed. In addition to breaking all the other responsibilities he had on his contract.”
According to the delegate, drivers hired by the company were unprepared. “Some drivers said they didn’t even know if the bus had a motor brake. They had no recycling course, they had no steering course focused on passenger transport, they didn’t know it was the driver’s obligation to fill the checklist,” he explained.
“They did not know that it was the driver’s obligation to inform the transport nucleus when the general revisions were approached on the buses and a number of other problems they were unaware of, all for lack and negligence from the company that hired the drivers,” said the delegate.
Already the head of the UFSM Transport Center, according to the delegate, was “totally negligent not to act according to what was prescribed in the contract.” The investigation pointed out that the man did not refer the vehicles to and that “in a way, they all knew that the brake targets were extremely spent and did not send the vehicle for repairs.”
General revisions, which should be periodic, according to Romaci, were last made in 2023.
Remember the case
The accident involving the university bus that transported students and teachers from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) left seven dead at the scene. The case, on April 4th. The Fire Department rescued 26 people, who were sent to the nearest local hospitals.
See who the fatal victims were:
- Flávia Marcuzzo Dotto
- Marisete Maurer
- Elizeth Fauth Vargas
- Dilvani Hoc
- Fátima Eliane Riquel Copatti
- Janayna Finkler
- Paulo Victor Estefanoi Antunes
