Two vehicle collisions on the Algarve’s notorious EN125 in the space of less than 24 hours have left 13 people injured – seven of them seriously, with one reported to be “fighting for her life”.
The first accident happened late afternoon on Friday (August 11) in Fontainhas, Albufeira.
According to Lusa, all five people involved were seriously injured.
One – a 39-year-old identified as Cláudia Simões from Loulé – had to be airlifted by helicopter to Lisbon, where she is “fighting for her life”.
Cláudia’s blood type is the rare A negative, thus family and friends are appealing to anyone with the same blood type to help with a donation.
The second accident happened hours later during the afternoon of Saturday (August 12) in the Alfandanga area, between Olhão and Tavira.
Eight people were hurt. The two most seriously injured had to be cut free from wreckage by firefighters and were rushed to Faro hospital.
Traffic was restricted to just one lane for roughly 90 minutes, causing major jams.
Meantime, the leader of the Algarve’s anti-toll movement CUVI took to Facebook once again to condemn the situation and urge the State to remove unpopular tolls from the A22 motorway – originally built as a free road designed to promote regional development.
“Would this crash in Alfandanga have happened if there weren’t tolls on the Via do Infante? We don’t know. But it most likely would not have, because many of the thousands of cars that travel on this urban road – considered the deadliest in the country – would certainly be driving on the A22, which would drastically reduce accidents, casualties and the number of injured”,” MP for the Left Bloc João Vasconcelos wrote.
