Runaway minibus runs over believers in procession and kills four in Pernambuco

The accident happened on Sunday afternoon, on Barretos de Medeiros Avenue, in the Marcos Freire neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city.

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BY Estadao Content

Four people – two men and two women between 60 and 65 years old – died on the afternoon of this Easter Sunday, the 31st, after a runaway minibus ran over worshipers in a procession that was taking place in Jaboatão dos Guararapes, a city in the metropolitan region of Recife , in Pernambuco.

The accident happened on Sunday afternoon, on Avenida Barretos de Medeiros, in the Marcos Freire neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city.

According to Major Rafael Silva, operations supervisor at the Pernambuco Fire Department, the minibus driver lost control of the steering wheel and ended up hitting the faithful who were participating in the procession.

Of the four people died, two victims died shortly after the collision with the vehicle and the other two underwent the resuscitation process by agents from the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu), but did not resist and died at the scene.

The Fire Department operations center, according to the major, received information that 25 people had been victims of the collision. In a statement, the corporation did not specify the number of injured people, but reported that the people affected in the episode were taken to hospitals in the metropolitan region of Recife.

To Estadão, Major Silva also reported that the minibus driver fled the scene after the accident. “When we arrived at the address of the accident, the bus (minibus) was stopped, the victims were run over and the driver was no longer at the scene.”

The minibus is part of the auxiliary public transport network in Jaboatão dos Guararapes, which takes residents from the outskirts of the city to the so-called “integrations”, from where other buses leave for other more central regions, such as Recife.

Major Silva states that the vehicle had permission for traffic and was regularized to travel on Barretos de Medeiros, but he was unable to say whether the road was blocked for the procession and whether the driver had disrespected this blockade.

The report asked the Civil Police if the possible failure to provide assistance by the minibus driver was being investigated, but received no response.

The mayor of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Mano Medeiros (PL), spoke while the incident was being monitored. “Our teams are already on site, providing assistance to victims and collaborating to ensure all necessary support at this difficult time,” he wrote.

The State Department of Health of Pernambuco was questioned about the number of injured people treated in hospital units, but did not respond until the publication of this text.

In addition to Samu and Firefighters, the Military Police, Civil Police, the Criminalistics Institute (IC), the Legal Medical Institute (IML) and the Municipal Civil Guard also responded to the incident.

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