Two people died and at least four are missing after a stretch of road between Borba and Vila Viçosa in Évora collapsed into a water-filled quarry on Monday afternoon. The fatal victims have been confirmed as two employees of the company that operates at the quarry.
Authorities believe that a car, a truck and a digger fell into the quarry when the road gave in.
Civil protection chief José Artur Neves says the search and rescue operations are “extremely delicate and morose and could take weeks to complete”. Each decision will have to be “well calculated” to avoid putting rescuers at risk as well.
The main issue is that there is no direct access to the collapsed section of the quarry, meaning that rescue teams have to use ropes to descend to the pit. And the fear of further landslides is still very real.
The tragedy happened at around 3.30pm on Monday on the EN255 road in an area known for its granite and marble production. The stretch of road that caved in passes over two quarries, one of which was abandoned.
Locals and families of the victims have complained that everyone knew this was “an accident waiting to happen” due to the poor state of the road.
In fact, local radio station Rádio Campanário had reported four years ago that the road was due to be closed down for safety reasons.
The mayor of Borba said the council was aware of this for about four or five months and that the regional economy board was in possession of many studies about the risks.
“There were news reports that the road was going to be closed down because there were signs that it could collapse at any moment. We knew about this for some time, over six months. Since then I stopped driving on that road,” local resident Vera Calado told SIC Notícias.
Luís Sottomayor, CEO of one of the quarries, told Rádio Renascença that he had also alerted authorities about the state of the road.
“It was a situation that I won’t say was predictable, but which I had warned about some time ago. My colleagues and I had a meeting at the local council about the situation and presented alternatives. We tried to minimise the problem,” he said.
Borba mayor was confronted by reporters about why “nothing was done” if authorities were apparently aware of the poor state of the road.
“Everything will be assessed by the relevant authorities, such as the council, to establish what went wrong. We will be here to take responsibility, or not. But that’s not what’s at stake now. Now we have to take care of the living and respect the dead,” said António Anselmo.
michael.bruxo@algarveresident.com
