A rowing team and a driver killed in a crash in Pelotas

The rowing team of the Remar para o Futuro project and the driver Ricardo da Cunha Leal are crying, this Tuesday, in the city of Pelotas (RS). The young athletes, between 17 and 20 years old, died after a container trailer lost control and fell on the van carrying the group in Guaratuba (PR). Only one of the passengers survived.

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The collective after, which started at 4pm, is held at the club’s country headquarters Centro Português 1º December. The bodies were moved by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB).

The dead team members were identified as Samuel Benites Lopes, 15 years old, Henry Fontoura Guimarães, 17 years old, João Pedro Kerchiner, 17 years old, Helen Belony, 20 years old, Nicole da Cruz, 15 year old, Angel Souto Vidal, 16 years old, Vitor Fernandes Camargo, 17, as well as technical coordinator Oguener Tissot, 43. The only survivor was João Pedro Milgarejo, 17.

“We were dating for a year or two. I know he is my first boyfriend, but he was the love of my life”, said Brenda Madruga Freitas, 18 years old, girlfriend of Henry Guimarães, to the television channel RBS. “Why did God take these people away? But, at the same time, I also think that God gave me and my mother a miracle”, said the young woman.

‘People screaming’: how did the accident happen with the Pelotas rowing athletes?

The container trailer that lost control and fell on a tourist van caused the death of nine people from the team of the social project “Remar para o Futuro”, in Pelotas (RS). The young athletes returned to the state after a competition in São Paulo. The identities of the victims have not yet been officially released by the Federal Highway Police.

A driver who passed by the scene of the accident reported hearing “people screaming” inside the vehicle carrying the athletes. The driver, identified as Macksuel Souza, 27 years old, hit his car from behind the van carrying athletes from the social project “Remar para o Futuro”, from Pelotas (RS). He told ND Mais that after feeling the impact of the blow, he accelerated the car.

Then, in the rearview mirror, he saw the van spinning on the road. Then, the truck crashed into the SUV that was driving the athletes into the woods next to the highway.

“Then I went back to the accident and the truck was on top of the van, and many people were screaming,” said Souza.