RED CROSS RESPONDERS DIE IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT

This post is also available in:

The tragedy occurred Sunday afternoon, after Red Cross responders from the La Unión branch concluded their participation in the “Paso del Hombre.”

The traffic accident occurred at around half past four in the afternoon, on the Litoral Highway at kilometer 74, near Santa Cruz Porrillo, in San Vicente.

The driver of the minibus in which the responders were traveling lost control, crashed into a tree, and caused it to overturn. At the scene, two women lost their lives, one of them pregnant, identified as Martha Lidia Vásquez Espinal, and the current director of the Red Cross branch in La Unión, Sandra Nomehy Benítez. As well as an elderly woman.

Also among those injured are the emergency-response coordinator Wilfredo Bonilla and responder Josué Álvarez Rodríguez.

María de los Ángeles González de Bonilla died at Hospital Santa Teresa in Zacatecoluca, where the injured were taken.

Members of the Rescue Unit of Comandos de Salvamento de El Salvador were responsible for recovering the bodies of the two women who lost their lives and who were still inside the crashed minibus.

After several minutes, the bodies were handed over to the authorities for legally required identification.

The Board of Directors of Comandos de Salvamento de El Salvador and the executive leadership, as well as the volunteers, regretted the deaths of the members of the Salvadoran Red Cross.