Almodovar: "Mechanical failure" said in court the driver of the bus that killed three A2.
Joaquim Oliveira de Matos, of 53 year old, bus driver, where three people died in an accident on the A2, near Almodovar, He defended the Court of Beja and "has faults", with the argument of "mechanical failure", I did not know materialize.
Turn, Victor Maneta and Antonio Striking, Judge Collective and the public prosecutor (MP), They focused on the issues that the bus had entered the land ditch, off of the roadway and bituminous edge and sudden movement of the driver to the left, to prove that the rollover of the vehicle "was due to human error" and dragged three people to death.
Joaquim de Matos, who is charged with three counts of murder and negligent offense seven crimes to negligent bodily integrity, a serious and simple six. He denied to the screening after the service area of ​​Almodovar, the vehicle has stepped several times soundtracks, version that was denied by one of the witnesses who traveled on the bus.
The defendant always maintained in his defense that "without knowing why the bus ran off to the right", arguing that it would have a breakdown "which was camouflaged by the company" despite denying that did not comply with rest periods and had distracted, He explained that "none of this influenced the accident" fired.
The mechanical breakdown version was contradicted by Francisco Palma, Sergeant Head of GNR, who inspected the car "that did not present any malfunction", adding that the front axles front and rear of the bus "circulated within the earth ditch" and the accident happened due to "lack of driver attention", finished.
When asked by the Prosecutor of the MP to realize some of the insinuations made about malfunctions, encapotamento company, inspection done four months after the accident, Joaquim de Matos could not explain and threw: "I was hospitalized four months and found that he had amnesia. I do not remember everything ", concluded.
In the accident that happened on 19 June 2015, to 18,30 hours, at km 192,8 Highway South (A2), with a bus of Barraqueiro, to provide service to the Renex, network express, that was the connection between Lagos and Lisbon (Gare do Oriente) carrying 19 passengers, died José Sousa Moura, Maria da Boa Hora Master and Astrid Scheubert, a German national, resident in Lagos, that they were designed out of the vehicle and had death site.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
