A drunk driver has killed two teenage cyclists while attempting an illegal manoeuvre in Faro recently. The accident occurred when the driver tried to overtake another vehicle and then collided with the cyclists, who were travelling in the opposite lane. David Estrela, 15, and André Caleça, 16, from Montenegro, in the suburbs of Faro, were killed on the Estrada Nacional 527, which links the airport to Faro Island.
Of the three cyclists involved, only one, Roman Sovir, a 14-year-old Ukrainian, survived, but is in a state of shock. “It was me who encouraged them to cycle to the island.We cycled along in a single line, on the hard shoulder. I was in the middle because my bicycle was the only one that did not have a light,” he remembers. “I stopped to take something out of my pocket and then, all of a sudden, I heard an enormous smash and I saw David flying through the air. Then a black vehicle came in my direction, hitting my bicycle and hurtling me into a small ravine.”
Roman described the last moments of his friends’ lives. “André died straight away, but David was still alive and able to ask for help. He was taken to hospital where he died at 3am. We went to school together at Montenegro. I still can’t believe that I have lost my best friends,” he says. “The police also tell me that the driver’s insurance had lapsed.”
The driver, a 28-year-old, who has been identified as an employee of a hire car firm and a resident of Montenegro, tried to leave the scene. “He fled in the direction of the airport but a security guard and other drivers blocked his path. Then he got out of the car, staggering and falling, he was in such a drunken state,” recalls Roman. Police have refused to reveal the blood alcohol level of the driver concerned.
