Days since two young boys were killed in a tragic quad bike accident in Penela, another youngster has lost his life. 14-year-old Ricardo Fernandes from Barranco do Velho, near Loulé, was projected with such force from the bike he was driving that 45 minutes of resuscitation attempts failed to save him. His nine-year-old brother, who was a passenger and also flew off the bike after it hit a tree, was taken to Faro hospital with what newspapers have described as “light injuries”.
Both boys are reported to have been wearing helmets.
The tragedy happened on Wednesday afternoon on the EN124 in Feiteira, near Cachopo, in the eastern Algarve borough of Tavira.
The boys are reported to have been driving home after visiting their grandparents. It is a journey they did often, reports Correio da Manhã, despite the fact that Ricardo was much too young to be even legally entitled to hold a driving licence.
The youngsters were travelling on the main road and as far as police have been able to ascertain, Ricardo lost control of the bike which hurtled into a cork tree.
The children were flung violently from the bike, and Ricardo received fatal chest injuries.
As to the reason for the accident, investigators are working on the theory that a wheel may have come off, as tone of the bike’s wheels was found 50 metres away from the scene of the accident.
“It’s a tragedy, for the family and the population,” said neighbour Orlando Dias who told CM that he had only seen the boys days before, again in Feiteira and again on the quad bike that they used to travel on.
The accident follows a tragedy last week involving even younger children in Penela. A 5-year-old Irish boy and a 6-year-old Portuguese friend were both killed after being given a ride, without helmets, by an Englishman. A third child, aged 7, survived.
