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Metro Police investigate after a car crashed into a bus stop on Spring Mountain Road east of Decatur Boulevard, killing four people, on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Photo is looking west on Spring Mountain Road toward Decatur Boulevard.
Published Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012 | 7:51 a.m.
Updated Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 | 10:50 a.m.
Gary Lee Hosey Jr.
Bus stop crash
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KSNV Channel 3 coverage of a fatal crash at a bus stop on Spring Mountain Road.
Metro Police investigate after a car crashed into a bus stop on Spring Mountain Road east of Decatur Boulevard, killing four people, on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012.
The graveyard shift bartender at the Crown & Anchor heard a mighty crash and ran outside to find scattered body parts, a demolished vehicle and four dead people.
The bus stop outside on Spring Mountain Road east of Decatur Boulevard was demolished by a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The scene was horrific.
Not everyone was dead, though. And as rescue crews worked to free the driver from the wrecked car, he asked loud enough to be heard by the bartender:
“Did I make it to the liquor store?”
Metro Police officials identified Las Vegan Gary Lee Hosey Jr., 24, as the vehicle's driver. He had four passengers at the time: Las Vegas residents Akililu Atanaw, 24, Maarig Tewolde, 26, and Wendim Fisenar, 31, and San Diego resident Tamesgen Adam, 22.
Ashley Cascante, the tavern’s day-shift bartender, said the bartender, whose name she did not release, told her that every time he blinked he saw those bodies. She also said he reported the accident to police.
An employee of the Jack in the Box, which is down the block from the Crown & Anchor, said he thought he heard a bomb detonate when the accident occurred. He saw four bodies on the sidewalk by the Carl’s Jr. restaurant with blood all along the street, sidewalk and a light pole. The Monte Carlo had “taken down” the whole bus stop, he said.
Late Thursday morning, the bodies of four people lay where they died, covered by bright white sheets. The bus stop, which amounted to a long seat and a backboard with a roof, was hard to make out, either obliterated or taken away.
Dawna Duncombe, who has lived a few blocks from the bus stop for several years, said Spring Mountain Road had “become a race track, I hear people racing down the road so much.”
“I’m always thinking, ‘Where are the cops?’ you know?” she said. “This used to be a really nice area.”
Thursday morning it became the latest site of a deadly vehicle-pedestrian accident.
Police have said they suspect Hosey was drunk and speeding — unsubstantiated reports from county sources say the vehicle may have been going 100 mph — when his vehicle went airborne and hit the bus stop, killing four people and injuring eight. All four of the deceased were believed to have been people waiting at the bus stop, Metro spokesman Marcus Martin said just after noon.
“We actually had a police officer who was fueling up at the 7-Eleven at the corner," said Metro Sgt. Richard Strader. "He saw the vehicle go through the intersection, basically bottomed out and then caught air it was going so fast.”
The tragedy occurred about 6:25 a.m., just one minute before the scheduled arrival of Bus 203, which traverses a route along Spring Mountain, Desert Inn Road and Lamb Boulevard 25 times a day.
As of 10 p.m. Thursday, authorities had identified the three pedestrians, all Las Vegans, who were injured in the accident, but are withholding the names of those who died until their families have been notified.
Zakiya Corner, 29, was taken to Sunrise Hospital in critical condition, while Zexiang Wang was taken to University Medical Center in critical condition. Billy Joel Ramirez-Fuentes, 31, is at Sunrise with minor injuries.
"This is probably the biggest with the most fatalities I've seen in a long time," said Gregg Fusto, director of trauma and burn services at UMC.
The accident happened about a half hour before the hospital's 7 a.m. shift change, meaning there were more hands on deck to accommodate what Fusto called a mass-casualty incident.
"We probably had 30 personnel, so we just held them in our unit," he said.
Metro Police spokesman Tom Clevenger said the vehicle was headed east on Spring Mountain Road when it lost control, ran onto the sidewalk and hit the bus stop. There were four people in the car, he said.
Strader said several passengers had to be extricated from the vehicle.
Atanaw was transported to Sunrise Hospital in critical condition with Hosey, who is in serious condition. Adam was transported to University Medical Center in critical condition, while Fisenar and Tewolde were transported to UMC in serious condition.
Hosey has a collapsed lung and possibly a broken back, authorities said. Emergency responders said they smelled alcohol on his breath.
Hosey has been charged with four felony counts of driving under the influence causing death, Metro Police spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said. More charges could be added during the course of the investigation, she said.
Hosey, who at midafternoon was still at the hospital, was booked in absentia and will be transported to the Clark County Detention Center as soon as he is medically cleared, Meltzer said.
Streets surrounding the accident scene were reopened at 7 p.m., police said.
Sun reporters Cristina Chang, Conor Shine, Jackie Valley, Brian Nordli and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Horrific. How hard is it to design some type of barrier for bus stops? Something must be done and quickly.
This is about the forth time this year where someone has driven onto the sidewalk and killed a person or persons. Its almost mandatory that you wait 30 seconds after a light turns green before entering a intersection to keep from being hit by all the poeple running red lights. If ever there was a town that needed red light cameras,its Las Vegas.
With respect to those affected by this tragedy, nothing "must be done." You simply cannot have a contingency for every situation.
We would have red light cameras already, but unfortunately this town has a little too much of something called unions. The ACLU threw a fit about them, and so they were installed and are merely for aiding in traffic flow, and not for saving lives like they were intended to be. This is a tragic accident, but mark my words, if people fight for red light enforcement, the ACLU will fight it! God bless the victims and their families in this tragedy. Along with better red light enforcement needs to come MUCH harsher penalties for driving under the influence. If this driver lives, he should never be able to step into a car again, after he is released from prison that is. And speaking of prison, he, and any other person who gets a DUI, should go there for a VERY long time. Problem is, this guy will be out in a month, and right back at it. It's a vicious cycle, and all those saying it only happens in Vegas need to get out of town more often. It happens everywhere!
It makes me sick. Absolutely needless accident caused by another reckless, intoxicated driver.
@noindex,
Yes, concrete bunkers for bus stops is a real practical solution. The whole point of a bus stop is to allow people on and off a bus. The cost and logistics of fortifying thousands of bus stops would be prohibitive.
@vegasnative,
The ACLU isn't a trades union. The state law was the problem NRS 484.910 states ""Use by governmental entity or agent of photographic, video or digital equipment to gather evidence for issuance of traffic citation. A governmental entity and any agent thereof shall not use photographic, video or digital equipment for gathering evidence to be used for the issuance of a traffic citation for a violation of this chapter unless the equipment is held in the hand or installed temporarily or permanently within a vehicle or facility of a law enforcement agency."
This morning's fatal bus stop crash was my greatest fear when I first moved to town and relied heavily on public transportation. Las Vegas has the skinniest sidewalks I've ever experienced in a metropolitan city, and the bus stops are a complete joke - both were obvious after-thoughts of planning and design. No two pedestrians can walk past each other on the majority of Vegas sidewalks without one having to make room and accommodate the other. Bicyclists often ride on the pavement, because there isn't any dedicated and level bicycle lanes on the roads, so that creates a dosey doe effect as well, not to mention if someone is using a wheel chair or electric scooter to get around. Then there's the issue of little room between waiting bus riders and the roadway. Sit down on a bus stop bench, stretch your legs and it seems your toes could easily could touch the black tar roadway. The default speed limit of 45 mph in Las Vegas is hazardous in it's self, especially considering drivers often accelerate to between 55 and 60 mph in those zones. Now, take all these factors, mix them up with drugs or alcohol, and you have a situation like today's deadly bus crash. When will the powers that be get off the dime and make Southern Nevada's roads and sidewalks safe for all who use them? Does the number of yearly roadway deaths of pedestrians need to hit 100 before our city and county agencies make some dramatic improvements? If the pedestrians killed on our streets were shot with handguns, it would be considered an epidemic. People of Clark County, it is time to stand up and have our government officials fix this ever growing issue roadway fatalities.
No where does it say the driver ran a redlight, he/she lost control of the vehicle. No where does it say alcohol is involved either. Until more information is available, we don't know what actually happened. Could have been a medical issue, or most likely, someone again going too fast. Four people were in the car - good chance they were going to work.
@VegasNative:
Many cities that have red light cameras have unions. One of the biggest cities in the country is pro-union; it has red light cameras and the cameras have been very successful. Your argument doesn't hold water.
Correction. I apologize for the mention of no alcohol was involved.
Tragic....
What I like about Summerlin is that the sidewalks are set back from the street..there's a buffer of landscaping. Other parts of town the sidewalks are lucky they are 3 feet wide and right on the roadway. The bus stops are right there at the curb. I can walk thru most of Summerlin and have some general feeling of safety. Nothing like planned communities.
At some point the city will have to look at the elephant in the room. Free drinks in the casinos. I see it all the time...too many people drinking non stop while gambling and then getting in their cars.
I always stand behind the bus stop. I had a Metro come buy once and ask me: "Is there a problem? why are you standing there?" This is why you idiot. Some one should sue the all involved in the design of the bus stops.
Move the bus stops from the far side of the intersection to the near side, that would prevent some of these incidents. Yes, that would mean drivers might have to wait for a bus to move before making a right turn, but it reduce the odds of the bus stop being struck by intersection collisions.
boftx,
This bus stop is located on the near side as you have requested. The car that hit it left the road long before the stop light. This one is also in an area of wide sidewalks and back from the street.
Concrete filled steel posts would slow some of these cars down from hitting bus stops but don't know that it is going to stop them.
We can design a jet-pack to tether a one-ton robot down to Mars 32,680 miles away, but we struggle with installing sobriety ignitions on vehicles even though the technology exists.
vegaslee,
Thanks, I couldn't quite tell in this case. I know that in several others over the past few years bus stop location, and the fact that there are often walls behind them, have been contributing factors.
I don't think this can ever be eliminated, but it can be reduced.
The speed limit, especially on SM in that area, should be no more than 30 IMHO.
We have these roads all over the valley where speed limits are way too high. Most of Decatur should be 35 tops. Flamingo? same thing. Simply ridiculous nothing is done beyond what appears to me to be the use of lights to slow the flows. Instead people speed even more to beat these lights. Why not intelligently manage traffic with a focus on the base speed limit?
'Horrific. How hard is it to design some type of barrier for bus stops? Something must be done and quickly.......'
Lolli collumns, are about 4 or 5 feet high and filled with cement. You often see them in front of electrical outlets on buildings that are near parking, or in front of buildings with very close parking lots, think gas stations. This would be a great idea, but the cost to do this to every bus stop will be high. I think it might be a better idea to move the bus stops back from the road 10 to 15 feet, and put in lolli collumns.
Don't know about others but anytime I am within a few feet of rapidly moving traffic I immediately get an uneasy feeling that my personal safety has become jeopardized -- such tragedies confirm my fears, while pedestrian gathering placements near hazardous thoroughfares are safety disasters.
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I always see people waiting at these bus stops with ear buds, texting, not even paying attention to the fact that they are inches from vehicles going by at 40-50 mph. You've got so many crazy, stupid drivers in this town and pedestrians are really in danger and yet they continue to isolate themsleves in music and texting.
Cut out the free drinks at casinos. There's no other form of entertainment that provides you with free drinks.
Tragic. And it seems that the idiotic drunk drivers usually survive.
Sorry but I don't know many people "carpooling" to work with a drunk driver. Probably on their way home from a night of partying. But at this point, we are all speculating.
I completely agree with stephenrblv, but I hate to say that even if you lower every speed limit, there will still be those who continue to break it.
This whole incident was a perfect storm and no one fix would have prevented it.
The approach to this intersection is on a hill, and it's a challenge just to get out of the Jack in the Box at that corner, and always seems like cars are going faster than normal.
I think it is the idiotic drivers in this town that need to be "fixed" as opposed to the bus stops. Unfortunately our backyard directly butts up to a bus stop. There is also a dip in the road right before the bus stop. We quite frequently hear tires squealing from people having to brake hard before the dip and have even had a car careen into our neighbors backyard wall inches away from the bus stop because drivers take the dip to fast and lose control. Much worse when it rains. And this is a 35 mph road.
Penalties need to be much harsher for DUI's or any type of vehicular accident that causes injury or death. We no longer have the luxury of "slaps on the wrist" in this town. I have been here 40+ years and the drivers on the roads are the worst ever. If our jails are over crowded fine, take away the offender's license....permanently. AND they should be automatically be held financially responsible for any and all medical care for the victim.
I guarantee this loser was out with his buddies, playing 50 cent roulette all night, pounding Heinekens one after the other. By 6am their money was gone and it was time to go home. So, all 4 of the stooges jump in the car and the king stooge decides that driving 100mph is a smart idea.
Just like that he wipes out 4 lives and all the family and friends of these victims suffer as well.
as rescue crews worked to free a man from the wrecked car, he asked loud enough to be heard by the bartender:
"Did I make it to the liquor store?"
THATS ALL THIS PERSON CAN THINK ABOUT...WOW
my money is on an illegal mexican drunk or repeat offender with 2 prior dui's and driving with no license, these two groups seem to make up 99% of these cases.
CAR CONTROL NOW
We cannot allow mere civilians to continue to own these high speed high capacity assault cars. Their potential to cause massacres are just too great. Only military and police show own cars.
No other form of entertainment plies their patrons with free alcohol. Just gambling. I'm playing $15 blackjack..do I need a damn free drink? No. Charge a miminal amount $3 per drink and I guarantee a lot of these impaired drivers go away. Can you imagine a baseball stadium filled with free drinkers? You would have mass chaos as the drunks pile into their cars. There's a lot of people who gamble who might otherwise not drink...unless of course if you say "free".
Let's find out where this numbskull driver was driving from.
I'd prefer to come at this with a solution from a technical perspective. Put a Breathalyzer into vehicles from the manufacturer. As many others have stated the stats for repeat offenders is quite high.
Bottom line, car doesn't work unless you breathe into it and it determines you don't have alcohol in your system. Sure someone could game the system and have their sober friend blow into it, but I would imagine that hopefully the sober person would let their friend drive drunk.
The other passengers in this car could have very well been drunk themselves.
This solution only really works well for drunk drivers. Reckless drivers still abound, for which we have the police patrolling. Stricter punishment instead of this 3 strike rule. 1 strike lands you in jail.
wouldn't*
Alcohol was involved. And marijuana is just so horrible...
It is truly amazing to see the recidivism. Alcoholism and addiction certainly play a part. When these people are given another chance and/or released from incarceration, they offend again. We keep paying the price over and over again, with our lives, our safety, our wealth--in that we pay for the law enforcement and court costs as these repeat offenders just keep doing whatever they want without concern for anyone else.
Those poor people. God bless them.
I think it's time to put up posts at the bus stops to help stop an out of control vehicle/driver.
@Det Munch- you might have missed it but they do suspect the driver habing been drunk.
Metro's fatal accident team is very good and they'll have a full report including computer simulations of the accident in a few weeks.
The city has been putting in pretty sculptures in medians lately. Maybe it's time to invest that money protecting the folks that ride the bus to work. The Target on North Decatur has some concrete barriers that look like festive decorations in front of the store to prevent things like this.
I am so sorry for the families of the dead and send my best wishes to the injured.
Going bust: Ban low performance drivers, not high performance cars......
Alcohol is a horrible toxin.
It killed my father, grandfather and uncle.
I know of unwanted pregnancies caused by it.
I know that girls get raped or beaten because of it.
I know that children get beaten because of it.
It reduces productivity of the workers.
Add about one ton of other bad things that happen because of it.
Our society would be like 10,000,000,000,000,000 more better if none of us drink it.
With all that said, we can't outlaw it.
People are sick in their head.
Human condition is corrupted.
So sometimes we have to wave the white flag and allow people to do very stupid things.
We or life still makes those people pay a heavy toll for their stupidity.
As in like this stupid guy's life, he will be spending the next 15 or so his life in a state prision and then spend the next 10 to 15 years on probation/parole.
However, many of us also will pay a heavy toll for other's stupidity.
That is life.
Humans are stupid.
There will never be uptopia no matter how many laws are passed. There is a law against murder but it still happens.
Humans are very corrupt individuals.
There never will be uptopia.
Concrete bollards (3+' tall yellow poles you see all over the valley)....the same thing that is used to protect above ground fuel storage tanks, fire hydrants and electrical transformers can be placed at 3-4 foot intervals around the bus stop areas. These are quite adequate for stopping vehicles. And whichever bar/lounge that allowed him to get to this state of intoxication needs to be held financially liable.
it was a car full of bad news. we could make all the laws and barriers we want, these guys will still be on the other side, scraping at the door.
Bollards don't have the stopping power that most people think they do. (People keep saying "concrete bollards" but ones made of concrete only are purely a visual deterrent, security bollards are made of steel, which may or may not be filled with concrete. The concrete fill adds weight, but does not actually improve the strength or stopping power)
Do a Google search and check out the spec sheets from the companies that make and install them. The highest rated I've been able to find so far tops out at a 45-55 mph impact....and that's ONLY if they are close enough together that there are always two bollards sharing the impact.
Bottom line is that in this situation, based on the information that has been released so far, having barriers in place would *NOT* have saved the pedestrians at the bus stop.
I see they already have a file on this scumbag.
Requisite trash neck tattoo...check
Prior record...check
Occupants with prior run-ins...check
alcohol...check
The sad part is that he will not get nearly enough prison time for this callous act.
He does have a prior arrest record. Only 23 years old. Looks like he had a bright future in the CCDC in front of him. Now he can face prison. Some of the occupants in the car also have prior records. Sounds like a nice crew of citizens (eyes roll)
Gary L. Hosey, Jr.
Charges Resulting from Arrest on 08/11/2012
Detention Facility: CCDC
Larceny From A Person
Counts: 1
Bond: $10,000.00
Consp Larceny From A Person
Counts: 1
Bond: $2,000.00
Charges Resulting from Arrest on 11/27/2011
Detention Facility: CCDC
Lewd Or Dissolute Conduct
Counts: 1
Bond: $1,000.00
Gary L. Hosey Jr. (continued)
arrests for: Possession of a controlled substance --non-medical marijuana -- less than 1 oz., [04/2011], Obstructing a police officer, [07/2011], Possession of a controlled substance -- non-medical marijuana -- less than 1 oz., [01/2012]