A series of tragic events blotted out the usual sparkle of the holiday season for a number of lakeside area families.
Four local men lost their lives and several others sustained severe injuries in three separate highway accidents that occurred over the two days preceding Christmas Day.
The first incident was reported at 5:40 p.m. on December 23. Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos farmer Jose Barajas Lupercio, 60, lost control of his 1994 Mazda pickup truck and crashed into a tree as he was driving towards home along the narrow roadway feeding out of Santa Cruz de la Soledad. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His twin brother Nicanor Barajas Lupercio, seated in the passenger seat, was seriously hurt. A third passenger in the back seat, identified as Victor Hernandez, 67, escaped with minor injuries. Authorities report that the three men had apparently been drinking heavily since early in the morning.Another fatal single car accident followed just 10 minutes later on the eastern outskirts of Chapala. Jose Rodriguez Garcia, a 31-year-old law student, was driving into town behind the wheel of a 1998 Explorer, apparently traveling at high speed when he failed to navigate the tight curves bordering the Milagrosa Park. Witnesses saw the vehicle plow through the chain barrier and flip in the air several times before hitting a tree. The driver and two companions were thrown from the car on impact. Rodriguez died instantly. Jose Angel Sepulveda, 21, was gravely injured and after being rushed to a Guadalajara hospital for emergency treatment, expired the following day. The third passenger, Victor Manuel Real Navarro, 27, is expected to survive his injuries. All three were Chapala residents.
Bernardino Bonilla Palacios, 33, chief horticulturist at Chapala’s municipal nursery, lost his life after a December 24 head-on collision on the Libramiento by-pass. He was driving a 1986 Dodge Dart en route to a Christmas Eve family gathering in Ixtlahuacan when the car was decimated upon impact with a 2004 Dodge Stratus driven by Canadian citizen Ryan Danielkewicz, 38, with a home address also in Ixtlahuacan. The foreigner and a nine-year nephew riding in the car were not seriously injured. According to records at the Chapala Ministerio Publico district attorney’s office, Danielkewicz was cleared of driving under the influence of alcohol, but tested positive for amphetamines. He has been remanded for trial on charges of negligent homicide, injuries and damages.
In another tragic accident, two-year-old son of an Atotonilquillo couple suffered a fatal injury on Christmas Eve when he was struck in the face by a piece of flying debris that was blown out of a concrete sidewalk near his home by a potent firecracker set off by unknown party. The youngster succumbed three days later while undergoing treatment in a Guadalajara hospital.