A family outing to celebrate “Dia dos Avós” (grandparents’ day) ended in tragedy almost as soon as it began when two cars collided on the IC2 near Alcobaça, killing two people outright and seriously injuring six others, including three children.
The dead were grandparents Américo and Helena Mitras, 75 and 77 respectively, who had been travelling to Lisbon zoo with their son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren, aged eight, nine and 13.
It appears the accident happened after a car driven by a 22-year-old man “left its side of the road” crashing into the family’s oncoming car “with violence”.
Everyone in the car was hurt, with one of the children having to be airlifted to Leiria hospital.
Both parents and two children remain in hospital, with only the 13-year-old having been released.
The 22-year-old man who appears to have been responsible for the accident was also “gravely injured”, say reports.
The accident happened at 8am on Sunday morning, forcing police to close the road off for investigations for around three hours.
Elsewhere, the “bloody Sunday” continued, with a 19-year-old motorcyclist being killed after colliding with a car on the EN101 near Baião and a 44-year-old man coming off the road in the early hours of the morning near Guarda.
