Overview
- On January 3 on Autovía 6 near the La Cañada Polo Club in Luján, a Honda Civic crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a Chevrolet Prisma head-on, killing Vanesa Yanina Escalante and injuring her family and the Honda’s occupants.
- The driver was identified as Gastón Maximiliano Montepeloso, head of the Federal Police unit in Rafaela, whose blood-alcohol test reportedly registered 0.48 g/L under Buenos Aires Province’s zero-alcohol rule.
- Judge Luis Marcelo Giacoia released Montepeloso with a fixed domicile, court-appearance obligations, license retention, and a prohibition on approaching the survivors, after prosecutor Mariana Suárez sought continued detention.
- Investigators are evaluating a hypothesis that the Honda was engaged in an illegal drag race with an Audi that fled the scene; the defense denies that scenario as forensics and video analyses continue.
- In a separate incident in Tigre’s Rincón de Milberg, municipal cameras recorded a high-speed rollover at a roundabout, emergency teams responded, two occupants were treated and declared out of danger, and the driver’s alcohol test was negative.