-Published: Thursday, December 5, 2019-




By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A judge in a court in Liberia, Guanacaste, rejected Wednesday a prosecutor's request to order three months pre-trial measures against a man suspected  of causing a traffic accident where two U.S. citizens and a Costa Rican died.

According to the Public Ministry, the Prosecutor's Office had requested pre-trial pretrial detention against the driver Dávila-Korea, as the main suspect in causing the traffic accident.

However, a criminal court judge rejected that request, and instead, ordering other types of pre-trial measures such as: submitting the passport to the court, not leaving the country, and not driving.

The ministry confirmed that the Prosecutor's Office requested a second hearing with the judge to appeal that resolution.

Prosecutor said Tuesday that they would requested the pre-trial precautionary measures against the 20-year-old man.
 
According to prosecutors, Dávila was traveling in a red pick-up in the opposite direction as the tourist minibus carrying the Roberson family.

Agents of the Judicial Investigation Organization confirmed that Dávila submitted to a breathalyzer test. The level of alcohol detected was within the parameters allowed by law, they said.

According to prosecutors, the suspect has a driver's license classified as a rookie or a beginner driver. According to the traffic law, beginner drivers are those with less than three years of having obtained their first driver's license.

Under the law, a beginner driver will be arrested when "the alcohol sensor test is more than 0.25 milliliters of alcohol per liter of blood. And when the values recorded in the aforementioned device range between 0.25 and up to 0.38 milliliters of alcohol per liter of blood, an economic penalty of ¢330,000 is applied." That's about $585.


The accident happened Monday. According to the monitoring department of the Red Cross in Liberia, workers there received an emergency call about a vehicle crash on the road near Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport in Guanacaste. That was at approximately 4:30 a.m.

One of the two cars in the accident was a tourist minibus in which a family from Texas and others were traveling from a hotel at the airport to take a flight to the United States after having been on vacation in Guanacaste.

When paramedics arrived at the accident scene, three people had died. One was a female 38-year-old U.S. citizen surnamed Roberson, as well as her 6-year-old son.

Also dead was the tourist minibus driver, a Costa Rican surnamed Pereira-Leiva. He was 39.

The paramedics attended another tourist who was traveling in the minibus, a 54-year-old male U.S. citizen, also surnamed Roberson. He is the husband of the deceased woman and father of the deceased child, the Red Cross said.

The paramedics took Roberson to the Enrique Baltodano Briseño Hospital in Liberia. The hospital's patient information department reported Tuesday that Roberson left the hospital that morning.

The investigation suggested that one of the two vehicles invaded the opposite line causing the accident.

The prosecutor's thesis is that Dávila's vehicle invaded the lane  caused the head-on crash.

The victims were traveling from La Cruz to the airport, and Dávila was driving in the opposite direction.

 


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What is the penalty in your country, the drunk driver that causes the death of other people in a traffic accident?   We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com