Monday, September 25,1989
The Battalion
Page 7
Town still gripped by pain of bus accident
Truck driver distraught by deaths
MISSION (AP) — The driver of
the soft-drink delivery truck that
struck a school bus is dazed and dis
traught over the accident that killed
20 school children and injured 63
others, his family and neighbors
said.
Ruben Perez, 25, remained at his
parents’ home in rural Mission. He
was the driver of a truck that went
through a stop signand struck the
school bus, sending the bus into a
water-filled pit. Twenty junior-high
and high-school children were killed
in the accident Thursday morning.
Perez refused to answer questions
from investigators on Saturday, said
National Transportation Safety
Board member Lee Dickinson.
“His counsel advised him not to
talk to the Safety Board and to exer
cise his Fifth and Sixth Amendment
rights,” Dickinson said. “So we did
not talk to the driver.”
Perez’s uncle, Tieurcio Santiago,
said his nephew is not ready to talk
about the accident.
“I haven’t talked to him too
much,” Santiago told the Dallas
Morning News on Saturday. “He’s in
bad shape emotionally. He’s doing
all right, but he’s in shock right
now.”
Perez initially told authorities that
the truck’s brakes failed. Dickinson
said preliminary NTSB tests showed
that “the brakes did work,” although
they were not perfectly adjusted.
The truck passed state inspection
last month, he said.
A neighbor of Perez said many
people in the area have thought of
Perez. “I don’t know him, but I felt
like calling him today,” Alma Bean
said. “I feel sorry for him. You’re in
nocent until proven guilty.”
Investigators recreate accident to answer questions
ALTON, Texas (AP) — Grief-stricken neigh
bors watched Sunday as a soft-drink delivery
truck and a school bus loaded with federal inves
tigators recreated the events leading up to a colli
sion that killed 20 students.
The National Transportation Safety Board
said the re-enactment helped determine the
speed the bus was travelling and from what dis
tance it and a Dr Pepper truck could have been
spotted as the vehicles approached the collision
intersection.
“In the range of 150 feet was the first time that
either vehicle could see the other one,” NTSB
member Lee Dickinson said. “We feel reasonably
comfortable that the speed of the bus was some
where in the range of, give or take, 30 miles per
hour.”
The speed limit along the road on which the
bus was travelling is 55 mph.
As the sun began to peak through nearby palm
trees, investigators and law officers gathered
next to the water-filled caliche pit which the bus
plunged into during the Thursday accident. The
accident was reconstructed about the same time
of day as the actual 7:25 a.m. wreck.
Helping in Sunday’s test was 14-year-old Edna
Morales, who was the last student to board the
bus before Thursday’s crash. Morales, who had
cuts on her neck and face and bandages on her
left arm and right leg, came to the site because
she thought it might cure her of the nightmares
she has suffered since the accident.
Morales told investigators she boarded the bus
about 800 feet from the crash site. She described
to what level the bus accelerated after making its
last pickup. That information helped investiga
tors arrive at the approximate 30 mph speed.
In conducting the tests Sunday morning, in
vestigators were among 42 people who boarded a
school bus similar to the one involved in the acci
dent. They also used a Dr Pepper truck pulling
the same trailer involved in the accident so that
the trailer’s brakes could be tested. Investigators
found no evidence of brake failure on the trailer.
In addition to sight distance and speed tests,
the transportation team drove the vehicles slowly
up to the suspected point of impact in an attempt
to determine how they struck each other.
A previous NTSB inspection indicated no evi
dence of brake system failure on the truck, dis
puting truck driver Ruben Perez’s claim to Texas
Department of Public Safety officers that the
brakes had failed.
icy,
fused Saturday to talk with NTSB officials, citing
his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.
While some members of the investigation team
were headed back to Washington Sunday af
ternoon, others remained behind to complete in
terviews with bus driver Gilberto Pena, truck
driver assistant Ruben Pena, rescue workers and
students.
On Monday, NTSB officials plan to further
examine the bus wreckage, particularly looking
at a v-shaped deformation in the top of the bus
that Dickinson said may have been caused when
the bus struck a stop sign.
Whitmire leads race
Poll puts mayor 18.7 points ahead of Hofheinz
HOUSTON (AP) — Mayor Kathy
Whitmire, who is seeking a fifth two-
year term in the Nov. 7 election,
holds an 18.7-point lead over her
main challenger and former Mayor
Fred Hofheinz, a poll by the Hous
ton Post and KHOU-TV shows.
Whitmire leads Hofheinz in vir
tually every category sampled in a
survey of 600 registered voters be
tween Sept. 14-20, the newspaper
reported Sunday.
Asked how they would vote if the
election were held today, 49.2 per
cent of those surveyed named Whit
mire, 30.5 percent said Hofheinz, 3
percent named another candidate,
17 percent said they were undecided
or refused to answer and 0.3 percent
said they would vote for neither can
didate.
“It seems
like this is
going to be a
very difficult
race for Mr.
Hofheinz to
turn around
— very diffi
cult,” said Bob
Stein, a Rice
University po
litical scientist.
“At this point I
Whitmire
can’t identify an issue that he can do
that with.”
Stein and Keith Hamm, both of
the Rice Institute for Policy Analysis,
complied the results from a random
sampling from the county’s voter
registration lists. The error rate in
rate in the citywide survey is plus or
minus 4 percentage points.
James Carville, chief strategist for
the Hofheinz campaign, said the
poll’s results “are inconsistent with
our own data.”
“Regardless of what numbers you
accept, it’s still a long way to Nov. 7,”
he said. “We are pretty encouraged,
and we have got a lot of things left to
say.”
The poll show Whitmire leading
with voters across the board.
She gets 45 percent of white vot
ers’ support as compared with Hofh-
einz’s 36.5 percent and 14.9 percent
undecided.
Whitmire also leads with a major
ity of black and Hispanic voters
polled.
Mattox, Richards begin dispute
over issue of alcoholic history
AUSTIN (AP) — Democratic gubernatorial hope
ful Jim Mattox says a candidate’s history of alcohol
ism is an issue for state leadership, and he says he
will bring it up in the 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
Mattox, the state attorney general, has not for
mally announced his candidacy. The only an
nounced Democrat to this point is State Treasurer
Ann Richards, who has openly discussed her 1980
treatment for alcoholism.
Richards, 56, called the treatment the greatest
thing that ever happened to her and said that if Mat
tox wants to make it a campaign issue, “let him raise
it.”
“In some sense, I think that treatment for this dis
ease has made me an even better candidate and cer
tainly a better officeholder,” Richards said. “And the
reason for that is that I have had the privilege of get
ting a real perspective on what is important in life.”
Mattox questioned whether a recovering alcoholic
has the “vision” to lead the state of Texas. Many re
covering alcoholics “still talk about living ‘one day at'
a time,’ ” Mattox told the Dallas Morning News.
“I think you’ve got to have very strong willed peo
ple, with vision, to lead this state forward,” he said.
“I’m just saying that if drug or alcohol abuse keeps
us from having that kind of vision ... it could be very
harmful for the state of Texas.”
Said Richards: “One of the tenets of a . . . recovery
program that is very important to me is humility —
the acceptance that I am human. I am not perfect.
Never will be. I think we need more of that in public
office, rather than big talk and big egos.”
Mattox, who says he doesn’t drink or smoke and
stays away from caffeinated beverages, has “very
strong feelings” about alcohol and drug abuse be
cause of his father’s problems with drinking.
Alpine Lamborgini
Shuttle Tour
°t- e>
COME SEE
this $ 175,000 Bright Red Lamborgini Countach
Tuesday September 26th, 12-7 p.m.
The Lamborgini Countach is a rolling monument to
the extremes of engineering. Which is why, inside every
new Lamborgini youll find an Alpine CD or cassette
deck, Alpine power Amp, and Alpine speakers. Of
course, you don't need to buy a Lamborgini to own an
Alpine System. You have only to love high perform
ance and pay us a visit.
Alpine 7903 FM/AM CD Player
^ ^ 4x Oversampling
SALE $ 549 00
Reg
$ 650
Alpine 7167 FM/AM Cassette
Auto-Reverse, Digital Clock
Reg. $ 250 SALE $ 199 00
AUDIO
Free Layaway
Full Repair Shop
Professional Installs
707 Texas Ave.
696-5719
Guaranteed Best Price
Cash or Check
All Credit Cards
4-
89-90 Yearbook
PICTURES
CLASS OF 1992
September 25-29 A-M
October 2-6 N-Z
CLASS OF 1991
October 16-20 A-M
October 23-27 N-Z
GRADS, VETS ^
&MEDS X
November 6-10
Everyone v
Class of 1990 To Be Announced
-0>
^
. ^
Yearbook Associates is located at
707 Texas Ave S.
Suite 120B
(at AR Photography)
Hours are 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday.
693-8183