Fellow riders recall victims of bus stop accident

It could have been me.

That was a constant refrain Friday morning as riders and mourners flocked to the bus stop at Spring Mountain Road and Decatur Boulevard, the scene Thursday of one of the worst accidents in Las Vegas in recent years.

In the cool desert air of a clear morning, a man named Friday Avila-Patricio said he sometimes takes the 6:26 a.m. Route 203 bus to his regular job as a bellman at a Strip casino.

The chess teacher, 35, said he had decided to take a later bus that day and was shocked to arrive as emergency workers were dealing with the carnage.

"I probably knew their faces, but I don't know their names," Avila-Patricio said of the victims.

Four were killed and eight injured when a man alleged to have been drunk behind the wheel of a 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo lost control and slammed into the bus stop at an estimated 100 mph.

Gary Lee Hosey Jr., 23, is facing charges of four counts of DUI causing death.

Police said Hosey had a lengthy criminal history in Las Vegas, including arrests for possession of marijuana, obstructing a public officer, lewd conduct and larceny within the past two years. He was expected to be moved to the Clark County jail late Friday.

"Everyone who took the bus was mostly casino workers at the Wynn, Treasure Island, those sorts of casinos," Avila-Patricio said.

He said the bus stop was particularly dangerous because of the proximity to the roadway and the speed at which most drivers take the downhill stretch at Spring Mountain.

"It's physics," he said. "Drivers are trying to make a green light or speeding up after a red light, and they're going too fast."

He usually sat and waited for his bus at a large rock near the stop, he said, but not this day. A bundle of roses atop a makeshift memorial had taken his spot.

Beneath the rock were dozens of candles, cards and a teddy bear left for the victims.

Unlike other memorials where mourners sometimes leave bottles of a loved ones' favorite liquor, this one for victims of a possibly drunk driver had only bottles of water.

The Clark County coroner's office identified the victims as Johnni Lee Garner, 49, of Las Vegas, Gerber Herman Ayala-Tomasino Jr., 24, Margoth Gonzalez, 65, and Hyon Cooley, 47.

Rosemary Martz could not hold back tears as she examined the memorial.

She had taken that bus route every day to her job at a casino until two years ago, she said, when her husband died and she moved to a different neighborhood.

Martz said she wanted to visit her old route to pay respect to folks like herself who can't always drive to their jobs.

"It's absolutely horrible. I work at the Bellagio, and we have a lot of riders there," she said. "Why would anyone get into the car drunk? These people were just waiting to go to work."

Paul Lebel, 21, said he was one of the first citizens on the scene Thursday and came back Friday to pay his respects.

The grisly scene had mostly been cleaned, and dirt had been thrown over places where blood had pooled, but there were stark reminders of violence.

Lebel pointed to a spot where he had seen a severed foot in the middle of the roadway.

He said he pointed it out to police and a few minutes later watched as county fire paramedics pulled the driver from the vehicle.

"How fast do you have to be going to launch a person 80 feet and your car is that demolished?" he asked. "The bench is gone. It's like it never even existed."

As the sun came up and the temperature began to rise, a man drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon through a pink straw exited the Carl's Jr. restaurant behind the crash site and headed for the street.

He passed the memorial, put his beer on a trash bin and got on the bus.

Review-Journal reporter Brian Haynes contributed to this report. Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.