The accident in the French Pyrenees of the bus that came from l’Hospitalet de Llobregat has caused shock among the Colombian community of this metropolitan city and Barcelona. The majority of the passengers, including the two deceased, were of that nationality, as was the woman organizing the excursion, L., who is dedicated to chartering buses at affordable prices.
The Colombian ambassadors in both France and Spain have spread the identities of those injured throughout this Monday to help their families, while from Barcelona the WhatsApp chats of the Colombian community were boiling with messages of solidarity. “What they have experienced is terrifying, I have spoken with two friends who are already here in hospitals in Catalonia and they tell how there were bodies flying away,” explains Catalina, a relative of some of the injured.
The French Gendarmerie is investigating the causes of the accident, although testimonies and the victims themselves report that the vehicle ran out of brakes while traveling on a mountain road, the N320, near Porté-Puymorens. In this sense, the French police have already questioned the driver, who is among the injured, and whose coach company, Chavi Tours, had declared insolvent just last July.
In addition to the two deceased, whose bodies have been provisionally transferred to the French town of Enveitg, a total of 32 injured were sent from the first moment to the Cerdanya cross-border hospital and, from there and depending on their severity, to health centers. Catalans and French. Currently the balance is 12 hospitalized in France and the rest in Barcelona hospitals.
The bus left l’Hospitalet de Llobregat early on Sunday with 47 passengers bound for Andorra, on one of those round-trip excursions in a single day that are usually organized by individuals and small agencies through WhatsApp. In this case, the trip was one of those that L. usually charters with some success among the Colombian migrant community, according to several testimonies, and consisted of spending the day Christmas shopping in the Pyrenean principality. The ticket cost 27 euros per person to go and return.
However, upon his return to l’Hospitalet, the bus driver opted for an unusual road to complete the Andorra-Barcelona route in which tolls were saved. And it was in those curves on the N320 where the vehicle’s brakes apparently failed and it zigzagged until it hit a slope. “It was a matter of seconds. The bus picked up tremendous speed without brakes,” said one of the injuries to the Colombian woman. Blu Radiowhere he assured that the driver saved their lives by preventing the vehicle from falling down the ravine.
To another Colombian station, W Radio Colombiaanother passenger explained however that the driver stated that something was wrong with the gearbox just before starting the return trip. “We told the driver to crash into the mountain, but he was stuck because of fear,” stated this testimony about the moments in which the vehicle was already going down the slope without control. In the end, he added, it was the organizer, L., who swerved and caused the bus to crash into the slope.
“The event has left the entire Colombian community pending and at first with many versions about the origin of the accident,” said this Monday Samuel Navarro, administrator of the group Los Colombianos in Barcelona, with thousands of members and followers on different platforms. Navarro explained that they are preparing an act of solidarity in the Catalan capital to support the victims.
The operating company, in the focus
The organization of ‘low cost’ coach trips is common in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. It is usually carried out by individuals and small companies, and the key to its proliferation in recent years is the price of the ticket, often cheaper than transportation by regular buses. The agents usually spread the offer through WhatsApp and posters posted on the street and then hire coach companies for the trip.
On this occasion, the coach was owned by the company Hispa Travi, although it had been rented for four years to another coach firm, Chavi Tours, which is the one that was actually contracted for the service. However, it is the case that this business had declared insolvent in June and had filed a petition for insolvency proceedings. In a statement, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) specifies at the same time that “that declaration [de concurso] and its resolution do not exempt prior contractual commitments”, as could be the case.
The mayor of l’Hospitalet, David Quirós, also reported that Chavi Tours does not have a garage license in the city and that in the past it worked mainly for sports entities in the town, but that it stopped doing so due to deficiencies in the vehicles.
From the town hall they appeared at the Chavi Tours offices both on Sunday night and this Monday, in both cases without finding any interlocutor or any activity. This newspaper has also asked the Ministry of the Interior to find out if the Mossos d’Esquadra are investigating this situation, but sources from the department insist that they will limit themselves to collaborating with the gendarmerie in everything they ask of them.
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