Bus crash details begin to emerge
Incorrect early info, lack of IDs led to confusion
The investigation into an already chaotic, fatal chain-reaction five-vehicle crash scene involving a commercial bus was made more complicated because some passengers were traveling under names different than those reported by relatives seeking information after it happened, law enforcement officials said Friday.
That and other factors also contributed to initial but incorrect information that the driver of a Honda sedan involved in trig- gering the collision was ejected and killed after it rear-ended a Toyota pickup while both were driving south on the interstate.
The Honda then became disabled on the interstate and the pickup was pushed off into the median, said Sandoval County Sheriff’s Lt. Keith Elder in a news conference on the investiga-
tion into the multi-vehicle wreck last weekend that left three dead and more than 30 injured.
The Honda driver, Phuong Truong, 26, of Albuquerque, was ejected but he lived and remains hospitalized. He is expected to survive.
“That was part of the chaos,” Elder said. “There was some question to what was going on and all I could do was to report back to the media what I was told at the scene.”
Elder said it all began about 2 a.m. Sunday when a string of four crashes occurred in a short period of time on I-25 near mile marker 244, north of Bernalillo.
The sheriff’s office said the following people, all passengers on a El Paso-Los Angeles Limousine Express Inc., bus traveling from Denver to El Paso, were killed:
Maria Delosangeles Almanza, 65, of Mexico.
Olga Hernandes de Grajeda, 58, of Mexico.
Maria Dolores Orrantia Camacho, 70, of Mexico.
There were also 28 passengers taken to local hospitals with injuries. All but one person have been released, Elder said.
Soon after the Honda ran into the pickup, the commercial bus from Denver crashed into Truong’s car, ejecting him from the vehicle.
The commercial bus, after striking Truong’s Honda, rolled onto its side and skidded across the median into the northbound lanes. Quirina Gabriel, 29, of Los Lunas, and Elvia Cardoza, 65, of El Paso, were the driver and co-driver of the bus, respectfully.
Then an Acura being driven by a Santa Fe man had a minor collision with the bus, but the car was able to get off to the side of the road, Elder said.
Then a semi-trailer truck driven by John Tapia, 62, of Chandler, Ariz., crashed into the bus.
None of the deceased had any form of identification on them and the luggage on the bus was in disarray after the crash. Additionally, the bus had made stops in Greeley, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colo., and Santa Fe before the wreck. At the stops, people could have gotten on and off the bus. Also, the bus manifest didn’t list the names of children sitting on their parents’ laps.
Many of the passengers were traveling under names that were different than the names reported to law enforcement by friends and family members seeking information about their loved ones, Elder said.
“That aided in the complexity of trying to identify those that were on the bus and those that had passed as a result of the crash,” Elder said.
Jerry Rosenbaum, the president of the bus line, said that they rarely check identification, except in cases in which passengers buy tickets for other people.
He said the company plans to transfer the luggage to El Paso, where people can claim their belongings. He said the condition of the passengers’ property isn’t known.
Elder said investigators will get a complete toxicology report from the drivers of all the vehicles but he didn’t have the results.
The case files will then be sent to the 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether charges will be filed, he said.
During the news conference, Elder said that one bus passenger was found at the hospital with a backpack with nearly $100,000 in cash, which has now become the subject of another investigation.
The crash investigation continues and is not expected to be complete for about eight weeks, Elder said.