Current Affairs
Eight musicians and the driver of the vehicle died after the bus accident
The accident of a bus carrying members of the Antología del Folklore orchestra, which occurred this Monday, resulted in the deaths of 8 musicians and the driver of the vehicle, in addition to 11 injured, several of them seriously. The incident occurred at km. 20 of the La Oroya-Tarma highway, in the Cochas Bajo area, Junín.
At the time of this report, the victims’ families were waiting for updates on their health status at the Félix Mayorca Soto Hospital in Tarma, while some had already been discharged. Meanwhile, the bodies were transferred to the local morgue, where their relatives awaited the respective wake.
In light of this situation, one of the main questions from family members and authorities concerns the cause of this tragic accident. RPP gathered testimony from one of the survivors, as well as comments from Colonel PNP Yoni Rolando Valderrama, head of the Road Protection Department.
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Result of a maneuver to avoid collision
Omar Valdivia, one of the surviving musicians, told RPP that the accident may have been the result of a maneuver by the driver, who lost his life, to avoid hitting another vehicle that came up suddenly.
“The co-driver says that a car opened up too much in front of the driver, and to avoid colliding with that car, he had to maneuver a little, and he ended up going off the edge,” he explained.
It is important to note that a team from RPP visited the area and confirmed that the section where the accident occurred is an unpaved road that shortens the distance from Lima to the central jungle, a route generally used by smaller vehicles.
In this sense, Valdivia ruled out that the accident was caused by the condition of the road or by poor signage, qualifying the events as fortuitous.
“The road was fine (…) We were headed from Oxapampa to the capital, Lima, because we had an engagement today, but we experienced the unfortunate timing of this accident that caught us sleeping. This happened at 4:30 am,” he stated.
This assessment aligns with that of Gilmer Diego Venturo, another musician from the group, who emphasized that the bus was not traveling at excessive speed “because it was all uphill,” and that the journey was “calm.”
“We were all sleeping (…), I only woke up when I was already off the road, about 50 meters away when I woke up, due to the darkness, because it was 4 in the morning. Only my colleagues who were less injured were yelling for help,” he recounted.
Human error?
On the other hand, Colonel PNP Yoni Rolando Valderrama, head of the Road Protection Department, told RPP that the vehicle was on an unauthorized route and did not rule out a human error as a cause of the accident.
“What I have been informed is that the official route was from Jauja to Tarma, and this vehicle had deviated from that route; it was on another unauthorized route. It was going from La Oroya to Tarma,” he emphasized.
“If you look at what time these accidents occur, it is in the early morning hours, between 5 am and 6 am. (…) We must recommend to companies that their drivers should be either relieved or take a break during those hours, because it seems that they may be falling asleep, causing a vehicle to lose control in this way and exactly at these hours (…) Sometimes we blame the condition of the road or the signage, but at these hours when these accidents are occurring, we can conclude that they are caused by human errors,” he indicated.
“This accident is under investigation; we cannot provide an exact cause, but the recent sequence of serious accidents gives us a perspective of what is happening,” he stressed.
It is worth noting that, according to information from Sutran, Tumi de Oro, the company that owns the bus, holds SOAT, a Technical Inspection Certificate, and authorization to provide passenger transport services.
Colonel PNP Yoni Rolando Valderrama, head of the Road Protection Department,Source: RPP
Reports of delays in arrival of help after the accident
Two testimonies stated that there was a delay of more than an hour in the arrival of the relevant authorities at the site of the accident.
RPP spoke with the sister of Yohan Molina Carhuancho (30), who recounted the difficult conditions under which her relative had to seek help after the accident, having to walk several minutes despite his injuries.
“He called me, told me help was not coming, that he waited for about half an hour. He was disoriented, didn’t know where he was. He went out to seek help, and out of fear, he walked far away and called me, saying that no help was coming. So I called the support police station in Jauja to help him,” she stated.
Molina Carhuancho was one of twenty musicians traveling on the bus that, around 4:30 am, fell into a ravine of about 200 meters at km. 20 of the La Oroya-Tarma highway, in the Cochas Bajo area.
Currently, Molina is hospitalized in the said hospital, as he presents thoracic and cranial trauma, as well as a pelvic injury. Despite this, according to his sister, he “walked for 15 to 20 minutes to seek help.”
For his part, Omar Valdivia indicated that they had to wait more than an hour for the authorities to arrive.
“They arrived after an hour and a half, but the people from the Cochas Bajo village came to our rescue,” he recalled.
“We were headed from Oxapampa to the capital, Lima, because we had an engagement today, but we experienced the unfortunate timing of this accident that caught us sleeping. This happened at 4:30 am,” he pointed out.