Yet another fatal hit-and-run sees PSP police appealing for witnesses to the vehicle/ driver that mowed down a mother of 10 as she used a pedestrian crossing in the Massamá district of Sintra on New Year’s Eve.
It was not a ‘late night’ scenario: Maria Rodrigues Gomes de Pina had just finished her working day, and was making her way to the home of her sister to celebrate New Year with her extended family.
Correio da Manhã stresses that the accident took place on a very well lit area of road with a pedestrian crossing clearly marked.
It was early evening (just before 7pm), and close to the local railway station: there will have been witnesses.
For Maria’s children – two of which are still minors – this has been the worst New Year that they could have imagined.
Appealing to the driver to turn himself in (no one seems to believe the driver could have been a woman), daughter Jandira says the family has been “destroyed (…) I will never be able to celebrate New Year again,” she tells CM.
Authorities seem to know enough to understand that the driver “was going very fast, and didn’t even slow down” after hitting 57-year-old Maria, originally from Cape Verde, who appears to have died very quickly as a result.
Paramedics called to the scene have told CM that there was “nothing that could have been done to save” Maria’s life.
The stark reality here is that hit-and-runs (a number of them fatal) are becoming almost commonplace in Portugal, particularly in the most built-up urban areas.
Maria’s heartbroken family have already started a petition, calling for justice – and stressing the “profound disregard for human life” displayed by the driver.
“Maria was the pillar of a large family, working various jobs to guarantee the dignity and well-being of her loved-ones”, says the text – yet she was left lying, dying, on the tarmac by someone whose sole concern was to save his own skin.
Source: Correio da Manhã
