The preliminary investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the deceased Freddy Rincón was driving the Ford UGR-410 truck at dawn on Monday, April 11 in Cali. Although the preliminary investigation –with forensic analysis and physical evidence– reached this conclusion, the family insists that “el Coloso” was not driving at the time of the crash. Those are the versions that surround Rincón’s death and do not allow the debate to end.
“The Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the vehicle in which Fredy Rincón was being transported was driven by him. That was supported in the forensic Legal Medicine, the technical studies and corroborated with the witnesses who were inside the vehicle.and the cameras in the area,” said the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa.
Although the official part seems to resolve the main unknown surrounding the case, the family of the former player of the Colombian National Team has many doubts and thus exposed them this Thursday.
The brother of the “Colossus”, Rafael Rincón, criticized the affirmation of the Prosecutor’s Office. “How are they going to think that he is driving, if the blow is received next to the co-pilot and all the others were unharmedexcept him ”, was what was heard this Thursday in the microphones of Blu Radio.
One of the things that the Prosecutor’s Office made public – to prove that he did drive – is a video (which has no time or date) in which the former player is seen leaving a fast food place accompanied by two women and a man.
The tape delivered by the authorities has a duration of 1 minute and 32 seconds. The video shows how Rincón gets into the pilot’s seat and, following talking with what appears to be one of his companions, start the truck.
At this point, another version indicates that Rincón, following starting, began to fall asleep and That is why he decided to give the steering wheel to another of the occupants. In this way, he would have passed to the co-pilot’s position, which, due to how the truck was left, was the most affected in the accident.
These images would correspond to moments before the sinister road in which the car ran a red light and, consequently, was run over by an MIO bus on Calle 5 with Carrera 34 in Cali.
At the time and to understand the seriousness of the accident, EL COLOMBIANO consulted with the doctor Alfredo Villa López, specialist in neurological intensive care and professor at the University of Antioquia, who from his analysis provided some data on the damage.
The doctor mentioned at that time that, although he did not know Rincón’s medical history, he deduced that due to the conditions in which the car was left and the time the accident occurred surely Freddy was in the co-pilot position and might have been asleep, which prevented him from reacting to reduce the impact at the time of the crash. That, possibly, made the lesions in his brain so delicate and, therefore, since his admission to the clinic his condition was critical. He was declared brain dead.
This newspaper also contacted José Ignacio Páez, an expert in traffic accidents, who commented that in order to establish the sequence of the accident inside the car, the Prosecutor’s Office had to analyze “the technical inspection of the vehicles, the autopsy protocol of Freddy and the medical records of the people who were injured.”
“With the above, the reconstruction shows the speeds of the vehicle and shows, physically, how the accident sequence was”, points out the expert Páez.
For his part, the lawyer Juan Alberto Torres, a professor at the Universidad Libre and a litigant on mobility issues, assured that the video in which Rincón is seen getting into the driver’s seat can work as evidence, but it is not necessarily definitive.
“You have to go in and analyze. He did not come alone, because it is very different that he came alone compared to traveling accompanied. There you have something called testimonial evidence, “argued the lawyer.
The fact that it is concluded that Rincón was at the wheel is key, because otherwise criminal proceedings might be opened once morest the person who was driving.
In fact, Torres indicated that a due diligence might be carried out civil liability and, in criminal matters, the commission of crimes such as manslaughter might be evaluated and even omission of relief. This might apply, for example, to people who abandoned the vehicle and did not help those who were injured.
The lawyer pointed out that it is likely that civil lawsuits will be filed in the future, due, for example, to the fact that the vehicle in which Rincón was traveling did not have a valid Soat.
Faced with this situation, another son of the “Colossus” -Sebastián Rincón- stated that is awaiting a full investigation. She had previously assured her that her father was not driving and that he was in the passenger seat.
Despite the first conclusion of the Prosecutor’s Office, the case remains open. Barbosa himself indicated that “the additional elements that arise from this topic they are being analyzed within the framework of autonomy and independence by the prosecutor in the case”.