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UTP report contradicts prosecutor's and PTJ's bus fire theory

Study finds that exploding air conditioner gas caused deadly fire

by Eric Jackson, mostly from other media

A report by investigators at the Panama Technological University (UTP) may give bus owners/operators Ariel and Próspero Ortega and mechanic  Edwin Jiménez a ray of hope that they might get out of prison, where they have been held awaiting trial for 18 counts of negligent homicide since this past October. The Ortega brothers made their living from bus 8B-06, which they had bought with a loan from the National Bank of Panama during the Moscoso administration. The vehicle, of Guatemalan manufacture, had an air conditioning system that used the refrigerant chemical HC-12A, and moreover had no emergency escape. Prosecutors allege that the fire was of electrical origin caused by Jiménez bypassing a fuse box and that the Ortega brothers were part of that decision. But the UTP report said that the fire was not electrical in origin but caused by the "flammable and explosive" HC-12A gas.

That gas is prohibited in automotive and indoor air conditioning systems in many countries, including the United States, precisely because of the dangerous properties that the UTP report cited. Pedro Meilán, director of the Consumer Protection Authority, noting that the chemical's importation here is neither prohibited nor restricted, urged the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Customs to take notice of the report and make some decisions about this policy.

Meanwhile, the report escalated a dispute between two of the people who were injured in the October 22 bus fire, nurse Lidia Atencio and cabinet maker Luis Contreras. Attorneys for Atencio and Contreras have filed private criminal charges against former National Bank of Panama (BNP) CEO Bolívar Pariente and two former Land Transportation and Transit Authority (ATTT) directors, Pablo Quintero Luna and Angelino Harris. They allege that these officials, who knew or should have known that the buses were inherently unsafe, not only allowed their importation, licensing, certification as safe and operation in Panama, but that the BNP actually insisted that its loan to the Ortega brothers could only be spent on this particular type of bus. But prosecutor Zuleyka Moore has rejected Atencio's and Contreras's petition.

That led attorneys for the two survivors to appeal to the courts to have Moore removed from the case, alleging that she issued opinions exonerating the erstwhile BNP and ATTTT officials and fixing the blame on Jiménez and the Ortegas without having examined the facts and then refused to make pertinent inquiries that she had a duty to make. At the first level, however, First Penal Court Judge Rolando Quezada Vallespi rejected this motion to remove Moore. His decision may be appealed.

Despite having prevailed in court so far, the Public Ministry was obliged to issue a statement recognizing the UTP conclusions and maintaining that "it's not true that the Public Ministry maintains the theory of an [improper electrical] connection as the cause of the fire." In her own statement, Moore admitted that the exploding gas was a cause of the fire but maintained that this was in combination with other factors and didn't explain why she has focused the prosecution on Jiménez and the Ortegas.

Meanwhile in the executive and legislative branches there has been zero interest shown in the issue of bus safety, other than as an argument to replace the current owner-operated system in the Panama City metro area with a concession for one or a few large companies. The government has chosen the "Transmilenio" type of "articulated" bus that it wants --- they are made in Colombia and Brazil, and have proven less than durable in Colombia and Chile where they have been used --- and has begun to cut trees along certain Panama City streets and avenues to make room for the vehicles, which are wider than our current traffic lanes. The October 22 fire was used by the Torrijos administration as an excuse to crack down on bus drivers for both real and trumped up abuses, but both within the PRD and among the public at large this has not translated into any substantial demand for the transfer of urban bus service from small business to big business as Torrijos intends. And because the current administration intends to do precisely what the BNP under Moscoso allegedly did --- dictate the brand of buses to be used without regard to safety or other quality issues --- there is a reluctance to address the subject of vehicle safety standards.

And might this issue be considered far to the north, in Washington? The current "diablo rojo" buses are almost all made in North America. The Torrijos administration plans to exclude US and Canadian-made buses from its urban transportation plan. The United Auto Workers and the Canadian Auto Workers unions might take umbrage, and as you read these words the former has its lobbyists in Washington working against the proposed US-Panama Free Trade Agreement. Panamanian "name and surname" contracting procedures that exclude American names and surnames are thus likely to come up in the debate preceding what is shaping up to be a close ratification vote in the US House of Representatives.

The drama in Congress, however, may be lost on the Ortega brothers, who were advised by a state-owned bank to buy an exploding bus. For all of the boredom, prison life has its own far more immediate dramas.

HSBC defamation suit raises wider legal questions, business risks
White House notifies Congress of intent to sign US-Panama Free Trade Agreement
ACP backs down ever so slightly on Panama Canal tolls

Universidad Tecnologico bombshell in bus fire case

SUNTRACS flexes its muscles over construction site safety

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Business & Economy Briefs