Ernestina Pais died this Friday at 54 after her Honda City was hit by a Tren de la Costa train at a level crossing in San Isidro. The collision happened at 19:25, and the impact struck the driver's side as she tried to cross with the barrier down.
María Paula Hertrig is handling the case and ordered a review of security camera footage from the area. The body will be autopsied before toxicology tests are carried out, steps that will place the crash under police and judicial review.
Sáenz Peña and El Cano
Authorities said Pais was driving at the intersection of Sáenz Peña and El Cano when the train hit the car. The municipality of San Isidro said the barrier was down when she passed in the vehicle, while sources said the barrier and the phonoluminous signaling system were working correctly at the time.
That combination leaves investigators with the same basic question the scene raised on Friday: how the car got onto the tracks when the warning system was operating and the barrier was down. The camera review and the toxicology tests are the next steps that can test that account against the physical evidence.
In March of this year
Pais had already been involved in a traffic incident in March of this year in Vicente López, where she crashed her car at avenida Del Libertador and Las Heras after refusing a breathalyzer test. That case ended with a traffic citation marked POSITIVO ALCOHOLEMIA and the seizure of the vehicle after a collision with an Alfa Romeo driven by another woman; no injuries were reported.
Her public profile also makes the case harder to separate from the person at its center. Pais had spoken about addiction and mental health, and in a recent appearance on Mirtha Legrand's program she said: "Fue una situación delicada, pero hoy me lleva a transmitir básicamente esto: se puede". She also said she had been more than a year without drinking alcohol.
Mirtha Legrand
Pais became widely known as the host of Mañanas Informales with Jorge Guinzburg, and her death now turns a crossing crash into a case of road safety, forensic testing, and camera review. The immediate path forward is the autopsy, the toxicology tests, and the footage check tied to the San Isidro crossing.
