The six lives broken in the Lérez river: a student, a teacher... and the survivor, who came from jail

• Events Six died when a bus fell into the Lérez river in Pontevedra

A young 21-year-old

who was returning home to spend Christmas with his family in

from Lugo.

A 44-year-old

and mother of two children who came to spend Christmas Eve in

with her family.

A

from

and her

who also wanted to spend the night with their family in the capital of the province.

A

-year-old rancher who was making the same journey to meet her daughter and her grandson.

and a

of Peruvian origin who cared for the elderly and got on the bus five minutes before.

They are the stories left behind by the tragedy that has mourned Galicia this weekend.

A passenger bus fell from a bridge into the

river in the town hall of

and cut short the festivities for eight families: it left six dead and two injured.

Although there is the possibility that there is a ninth passenger still missing, the central search operation was concluded yesterday afternoon.

The misfortune came on Christmas Eve night, around

according to the first alert call, and from there long hours began in which the families of the bus passengers began to approach the place while firefighters and civil guards strove to rescue

, first inside the sunken bus and then down the river.

Totally protected from contact with the press to guarantee their privacy and assisted by a team of psychologists, they recognized the bodies that were being recovered, broken by pain and, according to who was able to get close to them, "still in shock and not believing what they were saying." passed".

The stories are as different as those of the passengers.

A woman, the only passenger who survived along with the driver, was returning to her home after visiting a relative in the

prison , in Lugo.

The bus makes the journey between

and

and stops at this Galician prison, so it is a service widely used by relatives of prisoners.

On this occasion, sources consulted by EL MUNDO have confirmed that only this woman had taken the bus to go to jail.

This survivor was the one who put the rescue teams on the track of what happened.

At 9:19 p.m., a driver called 112 Galicia after observing the protection barrier of the

highway completely destroyed, although when he looked out he could not distinguish anything.

The night was closed, with heavy rain and wind.

Shortly after, this passenger called from inside the bus and reported that the vehicle was filling with water.

She managed to be rescued and transferred to

in Pontevedra, where she is admitted to the ICU.

In the last moment

As the hours passed, and while it rained insistently in this inland area of ​​the province of Pontevedra, their stories became known.

A woman of Peruvian origin caught the bus just a few kilometers before.

She is the caretaker of an elderly couple from the town of

, she finished her workday and waited for the bus to return home, at the

town hall .

As the route was delayed, she was about to stay the night, but, at the last minute, the vehicle just arrived.

Shortly after, she left the road and ended up in the riverbed at a depth of about 40 meters.

The deceased are residents of municipalities in Pontevedra: Agolada, Soutomaior

, Nigrán or

.

His destiny, the blackest Christmas in Cerdedo-Cotobade.

"An unmitigated tragedy," said its mayor,

, at the foot of the accident site throughout the rescue and who decreed three days of official mourning.

The president of the Xunta de Galicia,

, stressed that it is "tremendous that these things happen, and more so on a day like yesterday and today", while the sub-delegate of the Government in Pontevedra,

, foot of the bridge throughout Christmas Day, conveyed his condolences and all his support to the relatives and members of the operation, who lived through very difficult hours.

The rescue was very complex.

On Christmas Eve, the firefighters created a lifeline in which they managed to descend attached to ropes and with a crane to the bus and rescued the driver and the passenger alive and located the first two bodies.

At four in the morning they had to suspend the search tasks due to adverse weather conditions and the high flow of the Lérez River, since there was a lot of current and the water level inside the bus was already touching the roof of the vehicle.

In addition, the weather became so difficult that it was already especially dangerous for members of the emergency services.

Already early in the morning, as daylight broke, the search tasks resumed and the specialized services managed to descend a hillside to the bus and check the interior.

The

Trives Civil Guard (Ourense) located a third body on the bus early in the morning.

The other three bodies were located throughout the afternoon in the river, because, after the accident, they got out of the bus and moved several meters along the riverbed.

Two boats combed the river to a swamp located three kilometers away while the

reviewed the funds and a helicopter provided support from the air.

Eight or nine passengers?

The last body was located at 5:00 p.m. and was in the area furthest from the river, more than a kilometer away from the accident site.

With the assistance of the helicopter, they managed to recover the body and close the search operation.

The bus driver said, as soon as he was rescued, that there were eight passengers, so it was thought that there was one more corpse to be recovered.

However, it was finally decided to call off the search.

After 24 hours after the accident, no one reported the disappearance of this ninth person and it is possible that it is someone without roots or family, but also that, in reality, there were seven passengers and not eight.

Now, attention is focused on continuing to track the river just in case and investigating what happened.

At the moment, it has already been confirmed that the driver, who is admitted to the

, gave negative tests for alcohol and drugs and it is hypothesized that the accident was due to adverse weather conditions. But you have to keep investigating.

For this, it will be key to be able to lift the bus, but this task will take several days since the technicians must study exhaustively how to do it.

It will be necessary to deploy a large-tonnage crane that lifts the weight of the vehicle filled with water and it is necessary to analyze that the bridge supports the weight and that the crane can lift the vehicle.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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