In northwest Spain late on Christmas Eve, a bus plunged off a bridge into a raging river, killing six people.
Authorities said on Sunday that the bus driver and a female passenger had been pulled alive from Galicia’s Lérez River and brought to hospitals. According to the police, the driver’s alcohol and drug tests were negative.
A passing driver who saw that a portion of the guardrail along the highway between the cities of Lugo and Vigo had been damaged made the first call to emergency authorities. The caller said that the railing appeared to have recently suffered damage despite the fact that it was pitch-black and pouring rain and he could not see any vehicles in the river, which is about 40 meters below the bridge.
A call from inside the off-road vehicle was received shortly after, during which an inhabitant informed emergency personnel that the bus had entered the river and was “filling up with water,” according to El Pas.
Rescuers arrived on the scene quickly and battled ferocious currents and torrential rain to get to the bus. After the river crossed its overflow threshold in the early morning hours, the search was put on stop for a while.