In his rearview mirror, the driver of a truck saw a dump truck with no brakes come at him. No possibility of reaction he felt like tons of iron and earth went on his carleaving him shattered. After this impact, the cargo vehicle overturned, ending a terror tour that lasted 1.5 kilometers, leaving four dead and five injured.
This is how Jorge Iván González Guisao related the seconds in which his truck was the last motor vehicle impacted by the cargo vehicleof the nine affected in the massive accident that occurred at 8:13 p.m. last Thursday on Calle 55 with Carrera 77B, in the Los Colores neighborhood, northwest of Medellín.
He was transferred to the Conquistadores Clinic, where he was discharged a couple of hours later. He was the driver of the white van that was spread on social networks and commented that He came from a meeting in the village of San Cristóbal with his colleagues from the Police, to whom he was saying goodbye after receiving, just on Thursday, the announcement of his pension after spending 20 years in the institution, reaching the rank of sergeant. “It was definitely not my day, I had a story to tell,” he said.
The accident
The chain of crashes, which had as its axis the 1985 model dump truck, began on the road to the Western tunnel, on the descent road, at the height of the Blanquizal neighborhoodwhen the driver of the vehicle carrying earth hit a black car from behind, an incident that left no injuries.
The vehicle continued its march without control, picking up speed, on a downhill road and before passing the bridge that crosses over 80th Avenue, it hit a taxi, leaving your driver injured. He was transferred to the Bolivarian Clinic with trauma to the cervical area and left leg, where he was discharged around midnight on Thursday.
After crossing the bridge the final tragedy was unleashed, by ramming the other seven vehicles traveling at low speed over a ledge. He took with him the four motorcycles and three other vehicles, including the one that Jorge Iván was driving. In this last crash, four deaths and the same number of injuries were recorded.
The victims
of the deceased, three drove their motorcycleswhile the other was a passenger on a motorcycle that he had requested through an application, since his was in peak and license plate.
The latter was Jhoan Alexis Manco Úsuga, 28 years old. A native of Giraldo, Western Antioquia, he was the son of the sports monitor of this municipality, Augusto César Manco, who pointed out that his son was studying civil construction at the Colegio Mayor de Antioquia and lived in Medellín nine years ago. when he passed away, he was three minutes away from his house.
The driver of the motorcycle that was transporting him was taken to the Bolivarian Clinic, where he was discharged hours after the accidentas he suffered superficial injuries to his body.
Juan Esteban Arbeláez Urrea, 26, also perished at the site. His motorcycle, type scooter, was compressed as if it had been through a scrap metal compactor.
The other two victims were Yorman Ferney Rúa Gómez, a 21-year-old man from Vega who less than a month had left Ebéjico to look for opportunities in Medellín, and Jorge Andrés Arias López, 55, who was from Caicedonia, Valle del Cauca.
The dump truck driver he was the most delicate of the injured and was transferred to the Pablo Tobón Uribe Hospital. He was in the Special Care Unit for a complex pelvic trauma, according to the medical report.
The fifth injured man was driving one of the cars impacted on the jump and was taken to La María Hospital with multiple blows. He was discharged yesterday afternoon.
With this accident there are two similar events that occur at this same point in the last three and a half years. The previous case occurred in the early hours of April 25, 2019, when a truck without brakes hit a dozen vehicles, causing the death of Luciano Castrillón Velásquez, 81, and James de Jesús Zapata Sánchez, 65. In addition, Eight injuries were recorded.