A baby has lost his fight for life after an horrific accident that saw two cars ploughed into the gypsy cart in which he and his family were travelling. The 11-month-old’s parents and two younger siblings were killed outright in the horror, which took place on the EN2 on Monday night, near Castro Verde in the Alentejo. The baby was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition and this morning TSF radio carried that sad news that he had died.
According to press reports, it was the “poor visibility of the cart” that caused the cars to career into it.
Travelling with the family was a 14-year-old – thought to be the eldest child of the family – who escaped with only light injuries. The girl was treated at the scene, which became complicated after other gypsy families arrived and started heckling the drivers of the cars involved.
National tabloid Correio da Manhã explains that GNR agents had to move the drivers on “due to questions of their safety”.
Neither driver was badly hurt, but the dead parents and two children – a boy aged 10 and a girl aged 7 – were thought to have died almost instantly.
Their bodies have been taken for autopsy to nearby Beja Hospital.
The road was cut off to traffic as 36 operatives from fire stations, the Red Cross and INEM, dealt with the carnage.
CM explains that the cart that the family had been travelling inside was completely destroyed “which showed the violence of impact”.
Extraordinarily, the horse survived.
