The three-vehicle accident caused when an RTD bus ran a red light near downtown Denver on Saturday has claimed a second life.
Meanwhile, police continue to investigate the accident to determine whether charges will be filed against the bus driver.
One vehicle’s driver, Dustin Peletier, and passenger Carla Miranda, both 29 and residents of Denver, died Saturday night, said Lt. Matt Murray, spokesman for the Denver Police Department.
Their 2007 Volkswagen Rabbit was traveling west on East Eighth Avenue when the RTD bus traveling north on Lincoln Street plowed into the car.
Their families could not be reached Sunday evening.
Records show Peletier and Miranda have lived at the same address on South Decatur Street for a couple of years. He is originally from Bogota, N.J., and she is from Plano, Texas, records show.
A friend who asked not to be identified told 9News that Miranda graduated from the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design after studying sculpture and animation and dreamed of being an animator.
Charges against the bus driver could be filed early this week if police find cause, Murray said. The bus driver remains hospitalized, he said, and police aren’t releasing her name.
“This is serious enough that the (district attorney) is already involved,” Murray said.
“In this case, there are certainly a number of witnesses, so we feel confident we’ll have a fairly clear idea of what happened,” Murray said.
The bus driver doesn’t work for RTD directly. She is a longtime employee of Veolia Transportation, a company that contracts to run some RTD buses, said Veolia spokeswoman Valerie Michael.
“We’re working very closely with local law enforcement authorities to figure out what happened,” Michael said.
The Regional Transportation District contracts approximately 50 percent of its services, said RTD spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas. Veolia provides about 20 percent of those services.
Veolia drivers go through background checks, drug testing and safety training before employment, Tonilas said, and RTD monitors drivers monthly for safety and performance.
The accident happened at 4:58 p.m. Saturday. The bus hit the VW Rabbit, sending it crashing into a 1996 Ford pickup truck, Murray said. The bus then hit the truck and pushed it into a steel pole in a parking lot, he said.
The driver of the truck remained hospitalized in serious condition, officials said.
At least 11 other people, including the bus driver, were injured in the accident, and four remained in serious condition Sunday. Several were bus passengers.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to errors by a reporter and editor, the home address for the victims of the crash was given as being near 28th Avenue and Decatur Street. They lived on South Decatur Street in Denver.
