22 days after the overturning of a passenger truck that left 30 dead and a dozen injured when it fell into a ravine, dozens of families from the Ñu’u Savi nation, which lives in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, continue to mourning for the death of their loved ones, gathering the documentation of the victims to be able to start a negotiation table so that they are guaranteed reparation for the damage and compensation from the company Autotransportes Yosondúa. Meanwhile, the bus line’s operations have not yet been overseen by federal transportation authorities, so it continues to offer runs.
Despite being an unprecedented accident, the bus line continues to run from Mexico City and the State of Mexico to Santiago Yosoundúa, Oaxaca, with stops in different communities in the region. And even without fines or cancellation of permits, the government of Oaxaca and the federal Ministry of Communications and Transportation confirmed to Expansion
“The company has a federal permit and meets the parameters according to the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) in Oaxaca. Because it is not regulated at the state level, we have requested the information from the SICT and they tell us that it has complied with the requirements,” said Jesús Romero López, head of the Oaxaca Government Secretariat (Sego), in an interview.
According to the Oaxacan official, the state government is addressing the legal part with the families and the bus company, to ensure that it takes responsibility for the accident. “The victims have continued to be cared for, they have been given financial support and are now in the process with the families for compensation for the people who died,” he details.
For the bereaved, this legal framework does nothing more than keep open a wound that prevents them from beginning to process the duel. José de Iturbide, originally from Chalcatongo, who lost his mother in the accident on Wednesday, July 5, narrates that the process of gathering all the paperwork is arduous, so after the burial and the prayers, they are dedicated to it. “We are just in the process of entering into a negotiation with the company’s insurer, I am meeting the requirements,” he says.
This is confirmed by José Nicolás, another of the relatives who, like ten other families in this community, are grieving but continue to rush through offices to obtain the documents of their relatives who were victims of the accident, without the certainty that the company will compensate to all of them the same.
Among the passengers was one of the brothers of José Manuel Jiménez, a migrant who lived in the United States and who had decided to visit his family, which he was unable to do because he died with another relative in the accident. “He came from the United States to visit, then he doesn’t come, but now it occurred to him to come on this bus,” says José, lamenting the death of his brother.
The reason that the inhabitants of this region use these buses even though they do not have basic security measures is simple: they have no other option.
Isabel Jiménez, a regular bus passenger who constantly goes to the country’s capital for merchandise, confirms this. “The people who go to Mexico City and who travel on these buses are the ones who are engaged in commerce, because it is cheaper and because it is direct. And others, because there is no other,” she says.
The Autotransportes Yosondúa bus line is the only company based in Santiago Yosundúa, a community located in the mountains of the Mixteca region. Until now, he has kept two departure times for Oaxaca, one in the morning and the other at night, this outlet verified, without punishment or suspension for the facts. Even though the survivors and relatives of the victims have indicated time and again that the truck had recurring failures and suffered mechanical damage from the state of Puebla and again several kilometers before the accident site.
Bus that crashed in the Mixteca of Oaxaca was failing from Puebla, narrates survivor of rollover
The brother of Marcos Cuevas, a driver who lost his life immediately after the rollover, assures Expansion that before Marcos told him that no driver wanted to take the bus that was in an accident, because the brake did not work well, and it had mechanical failures.
In addition, that day, due to the holiday season, the bus was full of passengers and exceeded its capacity, a shipping service that it offers in addition to transportation. It was because of this excess load that it took at least two days for some people to recover their belongings and identify their relatives.
In a trip carried out by Expansion to verify the conditions of these buses after the accident, this media outlet verified that children, young people, the elderly, women and families, remained in small seats and without a seat belt, for more than 10 hours of travel, from Mexico City to Santiago Yosondúa.
In this regard, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) confirmed that they have “scheduled” an inspection visit to the company and promised to disclose the details of the inspection carried out on the bus line to the authorities in charge of the investigation, the area of social communication informed .
“Due to the magnitude of the accident, it is a long process, after the inspection any results will be sent to the corresponding authorities and they will be the ones to issue a statement,” the agency explained, adding that it will not provide information to the media because it is of an open case so as not to affect the process.
Due to delays like this, even though three weeks have passed since the accident, there is still no official report from the Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office (FGEO) on what caused the accident, and it has not been reported if there is any person investigated for the death of the 30 victims.
While the government of Oaxaca, through Jesús Romero, assures that they are aware of the relatives to “detect any irregular situation.” “We are open with the relatives to find out if any right that they have is violated,” he points out.
Expansion sought out the bus company to find out its position; However, they do not answer their phones in Oaxaca while at the terminal in the country’s capital they separated themselves and asked to communicate with Tlaxiaco.
Meanwhile, on the phone provided to families to follow up on the process, an employee of the bus line indicated that they should consult their legal team before making a statement. “We are going to discuss it with the lawyers and the insurer and then we will contact them to give them more information,” said the worker who declined to identify himself.
Source: Expansion
