Two families received the worst possible news yesterday after accidents on the country’s roads claimed the lives of five people – one of them a 13-month-old baby.
One of the tragedies appears to have happened for no apparent reason, while the other was prompted by a tyre blow-out.
The first incident involved a family of three, driving home to Lisbon in a Seat car purchased new only last year.
Say reports, the car came off the road, seemingly “without explanation” and hit a tree, projecting father and son out of the vehicle and to their deaths.
The wife and mother of the baby escaped with only light injuries, but she had to be treated for the considerable shock of the total loss of her immediate family.
GNR police are now trying to work out what caused the accident, on the EN4 road between Pegões and Montijo.
Meantime, further tragedy hit hours later on the A1 motorway, near Mealhada (Aveiro district).
Prompted by the blow-out of a truck tyre, it caused the truck to plough through the central barrier and into oncoming traffic causing mass chaos.
The photographs posted over social media showed vehicles were completely unrecogniseable.
The truck driver and a couple in the van his vehicle crushed were pronounced dead at the scene while four other vehicles involved saw occupants emerge “by a miracle” with only light injuries.
Rui Nunes Figueiredo and Alexandra Nunes, the couple killed in this incident had been travelling home to Oliveira do Hospital from Fatacil where they had been showcasing their artesanal beer for the last 10 days.
Local mayor José Carlos Alexandrino said of Rui that he was a “dynamic young man” who had recently won the borough’s Empreender+ entrepreneurial prize for his new business, Cerveja Rapada.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
