As details emerge on the causes behind yesterday’s horrific crash on the EN125 between Lagoa and Porches, it seems that a U-turn is behind the tragedy.
A handicapped driver in a specially-adapted car is understood to have tried to escape the road chaos that dogs the 125 at traffic lights and junctions at this time of year, and in the process of doing a U-turn, his car was hit full-on by a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.
The handicapped driver and his passenger, aged 47 and 54 respectively, were both killed outright and had to be cut out of the wreckage, while the four people travelling in the other car – all members of the same French family here on holiday – were badly injured and are reported to be still being treated in hospital. Among the injured is a 14-year-old child.
As Correio da Manhã brings this update, it explains that this year has seen 27 deaths on Algarve roads – 12 more than 2014. In total, there have been 5,200 accidents in the region, claims the paper, adding that yesterday’s crash – outside the Garden Center at Curva do Carmo – was not helped by the “thousands of tourists who had abandoned beaches due to cloudy weather and were on their way to local shopping centres”.
“In an attempt to escape the tolls on the Via do Infante motorway, traffic on the EN125 became chaotic”, the paper added.
The dead men were named as Cape Verdians Ameliano and Lourenço Soares.
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