Last night we told you about the massive collision on the Southern Highway between a pickup and a towhead. Well it's confirmed that two people - a 3-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman are dead and 5 were injured. Jacqueline Godwin spoke with the survivors today to find out what happened.
Brian Castillo, Traffic accident victim
"I held on to the edge of the pickup truck to jump out and my friend said no, hold on we are going to get hit. That is what my friend told me and so I held on tight and that was it. I don't remember anything else."
Looking at the what remains of this red pickup truck it is a miracle that there are survivors from this horrific traffic accident that occurred sometime after three on Tuesday evening. But the driver fifty seven-year-old Charles Rubio and one of the seven passengers thirty four-year-old Brian Castillo remains hospitalized at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Brian Castillo,
"A broken left foot, it was broken before and now broken again, and
two fractures on the right foot. The doctor says I am going to take surgery because I got two pints of blood I am going into surgery."
Charles Rubio, Injured driver of pickup truck
"Well I got knocked to my head and I got knocked to the chest and I didn't feel the pain right away until after a couple of minutes after then I feel it."
Jacqueline Godwin, 7NEWS
I noticed that you are wearing a neck brace.
Charles Rubio,
"My neck was paining me, terrible pain, so he said I maybe have a fractured neck but so far I don't feel I have it. I feel very good."
Jacqueline Godwin,
And do you have any injuries to the upper part of your body?
Charles Rubio,
"Only in the chest, I have a terrible pain when I breathe. I have in my back."
Sadly two other passengers three year old Jason Valentine and seventy five year old Angela Guiterrez who were both seated in the vehicle's cab died at the Southern Regional Hospital. Valentine is Rubio's grandson and Castillo's cousin.
Brian Castillo,
"The vehicle is a cab and a half vehicle, two seats to the front and two little seats behind and the baby was sitting right behind the passenger side of the vehicle."
Charles Rubio,
"I realized that we got hit by this big truck and I remember jumping out my truck and I was looking for my grandson and he was kind of stuck in the truck and I was trying to get him out. I asked someone to help me with CPR and that is all I can remember."
The accident continues to be investigated but according to Rubio, at the time of the crash, he had just pulled his pickup truck from behind a bus. The bus
had parked to let off some passengers at the junction of the southern highway and the Hopkins road. According to Rubio although he could not see if there was any oncoming traffic he decided to pull out from behind the bus and make a left turn into the Hopkins Road. But as he was crossing the highway that is when this tow head truck travelling in the opposite direction slammed into them.
Charles Rubio,
"I did not see anything coming so we decided to go across the road and go to Hopkins and all of a sudden we heard this bang and it was surprising to me because I am a driver and I know in the next car he is a driver and he is supposed to slow down and pass that approach with normal speed because whenever a bus like that stops you have to take your time because people are coming out of the bus and crossing the street to go to Hopkins. So you can't pass with that kind of speed. If he had taken his time and passed the bus normal speed, we wouldn't have crashed."
Brian Castillo,
"Actually I saw a bus when we got to Hopkins junction there was a bus in front of us then he pulled up from behind the bus apparently he did not see the opposite direction and then he took a left turn into Hopkins and there is where I saw the vehicle and the big truck coming towards us and that was it."
Forty year old Douglas Sutherland has been identified as the driver of the white freight liner. Rubio believes Sutherland is responsible.
Charles Rubio,
"But the speed he was under, he couldn't have applied no brakes because it took us like I would say 20 yards off the road into the bush. So
this guy passed without thinking or consideration. He was like 70 miles or 80 miles per hour he was driving. The guy was really driving hard. He didn't have any consideration to slow down and see that everything is clear before he passed and a bus, a truck, was coming from Hopkins the same time so you had the bus, two other trucks, and we. He was supposed to slow down."
Rubio was heading towards Hopkins Village. He says he is a frequent driver so he is careful at all times.
Charles Rubio,
"Several times that catch me pass the junction, people are coming off the bus and I take my time and I make sure they pass clear because you do not know who could come from behind the bus and get knocked down. So I slowed down and take my time and clear that before I pick up back my speed. So he was coming, I suspect he wasn't doing that, and it shouldn't have happened to us."
Castillo who was seated in the pan of the pickup truck and thrown from the vehicle would not say who he believes is responsible.
Brian Castillo,
"I don't want to say. I don't want to say. I say thank God the best wishes for all of us."
Jacqueline Godwin for 7News.
The other passengers injured in the accident are twenty six year old Harry Miranda who sustained abrasions to the face, twenty eight year old Dalia Miranda who sustained fractured right arm and pelvis, two year old Bunnie Martinez who received injuries to her chin.
