2023-10-12 22:01:01
The prosecution and defense of the truck driver Víctor Altamirano had arrived at the hearing this Thursday with a pre-agreement to close in summary trial the investigation into the road accident that caused the death of three people last year in El Foyel, but the court did not validate it due to the contradictory accounts regarding how the event occurred.
Prosecutor Marcos Sosa Lukman stated that on the followingnoon of March 17, 2022, Altamirano was driving his 1956 Ford truck, loaded with firewood, in a north/south direction on National Route 40, when on the way down to the Foyel River bridge rammed a Chevrolet Spin that was traveling in the opposite direction, oroccupied by six members of a family of Santa Fe tourists, three of whom died instantly for the wounds received.
According to the prosecutor – who cited testimonies and accidentological expertise – Altamirano was driving “recklessly and illegally”, at a speed calculated at 94 kilometers per houra, when he crossed lanes and caused a “head-on” collision eccentric” between the truck and the vehicle that was traveling along his side, heading towards Bariloche.
In principle the parties They had agreed to close the case with a sentence of 4 years in prison for the truck driver and eight years of disqualification from driving, as responsible for triple manslaughter of Sergio Monzón, who was driving the Chevrolet, his sister Graciela and his daughter Luisina. In addition, the sentence also contemplated the serious injuries of Mariela and Juan Segundo and the minor injuries suffered by Camila, all cousins and nephews of each other.
The prosecutor stressed that the Ford truck was in poor condition and the testimony of the driver’s passenger showed that “it ran out of clutch”, the brakes failed, and the engine turned off when they negotiated a step on the downhill and high-speed route. According to Sosa Lukman, lThe expert determined that the trigger for the incident was a confluence between “human factor and mechanical factor.”
ButWhen consulted by the court in the Altamirano trial, he gave a different version of what happened. When asked if he accepted responsibility for the crash and the deaths caused, he said yes, but assured that disagreed with what was heard from the prosecutorl, that he had lost control of the truck, that it crossed over the pavement and “it was the dump truck” that hit the other car and not the cabin of the truck.
The court did not validate the agreement
Faced with this contradiction and following a brief deliberation, judges Romina Martini, Bernardo Campana and Marcos Burgos They decided not to validate the agreement in a summary trial that the prosecution and defense had brought to the hearing and they granted a period of five more days to resolve the difference.
The defender Natalia Araya explained to her client that if he does not accept the description of the fact as it emerges from the expertise, he must face an oral trial, in which he might receive a sentence of up to six years in prison.
Altamirano appeared at the trial with visible mobility problems and was helped by two canes. His defense attorney had requested that the four years in prison, if the Court agreed to assign that sentence, are fulfilled in a “home” manner, Since the accused has a disability certificate, as a result of the crash he suffered a traumatic fracture of the dorsal column, He is awaiting scheduled surgery and also suffers from “aggravated post-accident hearing loss,” as certified by the medical examiner last March.
The court did not validate the agreement, but still clarified that if the accused cannot be housed in a prison and is authorized to serve the sentence at home, it will not be up to them to decide but rather to the execution judge.
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