Death certificate of Madeira bus driver delivered to parliament

The death certificate of the driver of the tour bus that crashed in Madeira in 2019, in which 29 people died and 27 were injured, who was the only person involved in the investigation, has already been submitted to the State Ministry.

“The death certificate has already been attached to the investigation,” confirmed the coordinator of the parliament in Madeira in a message sent this Wednesday to Lusa’s agency.

The 62-year-old driver died on May 10 after being admitted to the Hospital dos Marmeleiros and then undergoing palliative care at Dr. Marmeleiros Hospital. John Almadsky.

The next day, the deputy contacted Lusa and said that he had not yet received the document.

“The process has not moved to the stage of a judicial decision, the translation into German of the necessary steps is currently expected in order to notify the victims and relatives of the victims,” he added at the time.

With his death, criminal liability is extinguished in a process that was still in the briefing stage, which leads to shelving the case.

On April 17, 2019 at 6:30 pm, a tourist bus crashed on Estrada da Ponta da Oliveira in the municipality of Santa Cruz, east of Funchal.

The bus, which crashed onto the roof of a house after a driver lost control, was following 55 passengers on their way to a casual dinner at a restaurant in Funchal.

The dead – 17 women and 12 men – were all Germans by nationality and were between the ages of 40 and 50.

Of the 27 injured, two were Portuguese citizens (the driver and guide-interpreter who accompanied the group).

Eight months after the accident, on December 19, 2019, prosecutors requested in a collective court that the bus driver be sentenced “for committing 29 negligent homicides.”

Information released at the time by the District Attorney General of Lisbon (PGDL) mentioned that the man was also charged with three crimes against physical integrity due to negligence.

“The process has been ongoing for more than a year, the victims have been notified that a civil lawsuit has been filed,” the defendant’s lawyer told Lusa.

The defender also added that she was notified of the accusation, but because of her disagreement, she asked “to open the instruction, waiting for a decision on its adoption and subsequent implementation of the necessary actions, and subsequent instructive debate.”

As for the examination of the bus, it was carried out by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, which concluded that “there are no problems with the engine or the body.”