Two men, employed by a road maintenance company, were killed in the early hours of this morning when a van collided with one of their vehicles which was parked on the hard-shoulder of the highway.
The van driver was also seriously injured (needing to be cut out of his vehicle), while there were two other injuries: one serious, and another not so serious.
This is just the latest accident to claim lives in Portugal at a point where road traffic deaths have become so concerning (and numerous, in relation to European averages) that the government is implementing a raft of new contingency measures.
The reasons for this tragedy are not yet fully established. The two men who were killed appear to have only recently arrived at the spot (between the exit for Odivelas and the junction with for the IC16). They had travelled in separate vehicles, which were parked on the hard shoulder. They were outside the vehicles, reportedly “assessing the section where work was to be carried out”, for their company Viasil, based in Penafiel.
Emergency services were alerted at 2.40am.
Such was the extent of this accident that the road had to be closed for almost seven hours.
PSP police are investigating.
Source: Jornal de Notícias
