Survivor details Allagash accident

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AUGUSTA – The lone survivor of the van crash that killed 14 in the Allagash wilderness Thursday gave his account of the events at an Augusta news conference Friday.

Edilberto Morales-Luis, 24, of Guatemala said the crash killed an uncle and three of his cousins, all from Guatemala. The rest of the victims were from Honduras.

The foreign workers died Thursday morning after the passenger van they were riding in plunged off John’s Bridge into 15 feet of water in a remote area in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. Police say the accident was the result of “speed too fast for conditions and excessive speed.”

“I feel very sad, very nervous,” he said during the news conference. “I’m thinking about how the accident happened.”

Morales-Luis spoke Spanish and Juan Perez-Febles, who works with migrants for the Maine Department Labor, provided translation.

The workers, who were residing in Caribou, were subcontractors for Seven Islands Land Co., a large landholder in the area. They were in Maine to cut brush and thin pine trees and were about five miles from their work site when the accident occurred, according to state policespokesman Stephen McCausland.

Morales-Luis said he heard what sounded like the rear right tire blow out before the 2002 Dodge Ram 15-passenger van went onto the one-lane wooden bridge. He said the van flipped over and fell into the water, coming to rest on its roof.

He said he and others were concerned about the speed at which the van was traveling. Several members of his work crew had asked the driver to slow down shortly before the crash. He said he believed their foreman was trying to make up work time they’d lost because of rain Wednesday.

“I was able to escape from a window,” said Morales-Luis, who was sitting in the center of the last row of seats when the accident occurred. He said that after he got out, he made it to the surface, sank again and then resurfaced before swimming to shore. He then climbed onto the bridge.

The last sign he saw of his relatives and co-workers was blood bubbling up through the water from the spot where the van went down.

Eventually, two trucks came upon the accident scene and Morales-Luis flagged them down. They gave him dry clothing and called authorities to the remote site.

Morales-Luis said he was unable to recall exactly how he got out of the van. State officials investigating the accident said that based on what they’d learned so far, escape would have been extremely difficult.

Dr. Margaret Greenwald, chief medical examiner, said the crash and the darkness under the water could have disoriented the victims. Besides the 15 passengers, the van carried the work crew’s equipment, hard hats, lunches and other items.

“We do not see a lot of injuries,” she said. “It appears that the deaths are due to drowning.”

Col. Michael Perry, chief of the Maine State Police, said Thursday’s accident was the worst in terms of the number of deaths since a 1958 crash in Richmond that claimed seven lives. He said that the van showed no evidence of mechanical failure and that speed was likely the cause. Police believe the driver of the van had a valid driver’s license.

The accident occurred about 8 a.m. Thursday on John’s Bridge, a narrow 260-foot-long wooden bridge without guardrails on a thoroughfare between Eagle and Churchill lakes. One of the van’s tires struck the low metal curb on the side and rode on top of it a short way before the van plunged off the side, flipped and landed on its roof.

Lt. J. Darrell Ouellette, commanding officer at Maine State Police Troop F in Houlton, said road conditions also might have contributed to the crash. Thursday morning was misty, and the road and bridge were wet. Ouellette said it appeared that the van fishtailed before skidding off the bridge and plunging 20 feet to the water.

Despite initial reports that there was no speed limit on the unpaved private logging road the crew was traveling, Perry said Friday the speed limit that paper companies have imposed on that particular road is 45 mph, though lower speeds should be used when road conditions warrant it.

Medical Examiner Greenwald said the work of identifying the victims began Friday morning. She did not expect that work to be finalized until the end of the weekend or early next week. The names of the victims will then be given to the Honduran Embassy, which will notify family members. Area funeral homes then will be contacted to prepare the bodies for transport home.

She said most of the victims will be returned to their native countries. One or two have family in northern Maine and likely will be buried there. She said that the survivor was helping to identify the dead and that fingerprints might be used for confirmation.

According Sonny Tracy, the landlord for most of the workers, the dead men were Dionisio Funez Dias, Sebastian Garcia, Jose Santos, Euceda Alexi H. Alcantara, Pablo Euceda Amaya, Juan Mundez, Sebastian Morles, Cecilio Morales, Juan Turuso, Delkin Paddia, Carlito Izaguirri, Jose S. Alvarado, Alcidez Chavez, and Alberto Sales.

Representatives from the Honduran government arrived in Maine on Friday morning. Guatemalan officials were expected later in the day.

David Hernandez-Caballero, counselor for the Embassy of Honduras in Washington, D.C., said news of the tragedy had reached his country and the wait for confirmation of victims’ identities was the cause of great concern among Hondurans with family working in the Maine woods.

Hernandez-Caballero said he had not visited the crash site but would if the opportunity arose. “It is part of my duty,” he said.

While all of the bodies will be examined, only the driver’s is expected to undergo an autopsy, Greenwald said.

Morales-Luis said he was born on the Fourth of July in the Honduran municipality of Las Democracia. He arrived in the United States on Jan. 2 and first worked planting trees in Louisiana. He said he had been cutting brush and thinning pine trees in northern Maine since mid-May. He said he was able to contact his family by telephone Friday morning.

After Friday’s news conference, Greenwald acknowledged the number of deaths was an unusually high number for her staff of eight, which handles four or five cases a week on the average.

“We’ve put in a lot of extra hours over the past two days,” she said. She and her staff had assistance from Dr. Henry Ryan, retired chief medical examiner, and Dr. Edward David of Holden, who handles cases for the medical examiner in eastern and central Maine, as well as the state police and Department of Labor, among others.

Asked why the bodies of the 14 men, most of them in their early 20s, weren’t removed from the van until they arrived in Augusta, Perry and Greenwald said that being able to see the bodies and the victims’ personal effects in place helped them understand better each victim’s position, which will help determine who the driver was.

Greenwald said that divers examined the wreckage but found no victims that could be resuscitated.

“It’s amazing that this man was able to get himself out,” she said of the survivor.