BAY AREA – A Bay area news station believes a mechanical failure inside the limousine led to the fire which killed 5 Filipino nurses, who were on their way to a wedding party last month.
San Francisco-based ABC7 News reported on June 5 the weight of the passengers might have ruptured the air springs in the rear of the Lincoln Town Car they were riding, sparking the fatal fire on San Mateo Bridge. Witnesses told ABC the car was “extremely low to the ground” before it erupted.
The news station also previously reported that the limousine was carrying too many passengers at the time of the fatal accident.
Yusef Mustafa, a mechanical repairman, who specializes in limousines, told ABC7 that a vehicle’s air springs carry the weight of the car.
“So when one of them has a rupture on it, the whole car drops down, basically almost on the tires. So when the car drops down… that will create a friction and it winds up a lot of heat,” Mustafa said.
“The car would be jumping like a horse. If there’s a load in it, it would be bottoming at the ground, which is I think what happened. It bottomed on the ground and unfortunately, the gas tank is right there,” Mustafa said.
“The car with the weight, it bounced down too hard, and ended up hitting the gas tank,” he added. “It might have hit the gas tank and then you see, when it hits the ground it will create a spark. There’s a spark here and there’s fuel going down. So it catches fire.”
California Highway Patrol is still investigating the cause of the accident that claimed the lives of five of the nine women riding in the limousine who were on their way to celebrate a friend’s nuptials party, the Associated Press reports.
Neriza Fojas was recently married and was preparing for a formal wedding in the Philippines this June.
Fojas and four of her friend died when they could not escape the fire that erupted beneath them. Four women managed to escape by crawling through a small divider separating the passenger side and driver side. The driver also escaped.
CHP spokesman Arturo Montiel told the AP investigators are still interviewing the four surviving nurses and witnesses to the deadly inferno.
“Everyone is asking why it’s taking so long,” said Montiel to AP. “The answer is that there were 5 victims here, and we want to make sure we do a thorough investigation.”
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek June 12-14, 2013 Sec. A pg.1)
