By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Prosecutor's Office in the district of La Cruz, in the Province of Guanacaste, announced on Saturday that a judge has been asked to order pre-trial detention against a man of Salvadoran nationality suspected of causing a two-vehicle accident where three U.S. citizens and one Costa Rican died.

According to a report, the suspect was driving a truck Friday night near the community of Santa Elena a few kilometers from La Cruz on the North American Highway, seven kilometers from the main entrance of the Santa Rosa National Park. Police said he was under the effects of alcohol.

At 7:55 p.m. the truck invaded the opposite lane and crash into a tourist minibus in which were traveling, nine people: the Costa Rican driver and eight U.S. citizens who were tourists.

In the accident, four people died, among them, the driver of the minibus, from whom identification had not yet been obtained, and three U.S. citizens identified as a 46-year-old woman surnamed Niemiec, her 46-year-old husband with the same last name and a third tourist, surnamed Williams, 50-year-old.

The Judicial Investigation Organization said that "as a result of the crash four people who were traveling in the bus died, among which is the driver who has not yet been identified."

The other four U.S. citizens traveling in the same tourist minibus were taken by paramedics from the Red Cross to the Enrique Baltodano Briseño Hospital in Liberia, judicial agent said. "Two were in a delicate health condition and the other two in stable health condition," agents added.

The identities of the other U.S. citizens were not provided by the judicial agents.

According to Jonathan Caseres, deputy director of the Traffic Police, on the night of the accident, the trailer driver was taken to the emergency room of the Liberia hospital, where he was given two breath tests to detect alcohol, and both tests resulted positive.

Judicial agents said "the trailer driver was traveling south-north apparently at high speed, and he lost control of the truck and crashed into the microbus that was traveling in the opposite direction."

The suspect, after being discharged from the Hospital of Liberia, was taken to the cells of the Public Ministry where he was interrogated by the judicial agents. He was to remain there until a judge considers  pre-trial measures against him. That is expected to happen this morning.




 

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