More details are emerging on the drink-drive GNR officer involved in a tragic traffic accident which claimed the life of a young teenager in Quarteira last week.
According to Correio da Manhã newspaper, the officer – who at 9am was driving well over the legal alcohol limit – was decorated by the President of the Republic and the Ministry for Internal Administration for having foiled an armed robbery in 2003, in Almancil.
He was shot three times as he defended the jewellers in the Doza commercial centre and is reported to have spent almost a year off-work afterwards, recovering from his injuries.
But despite the medal of merit, the GNR captain – now attached to the service’s criminal investigation nucleus – is reported to have kept driving after his car hit 16-year-old Leandro Carvalho on the Semino road, near Aquashow.
As far as TVI can “gather”, the GNR captain was on his way home after his own birthday celebrations.
“He did not stop to help his victim, and according to our information, he did not make the emergency call to INEM”, said TVI. “Nor was he present when the young man was being attended to”.
As Luís Carvalho’s distraught family come to terms with their unbelievable loss, TVI reports that the accident was “violent, and that the marks left leave little room for doubts of any kind”.
It has already been widely reported that the GNR captain was on the brink of a criminal blood alcohol level. His reading was reported to have been 1.19 gr/ l, when 1.20 gr/ l constitutes a crime – but it is now unclear when this reading was taken.
TVI reports that the captain was only subjected to examinations over the accident at Faro Hospital at 5pm – almost eight full hours after the accident that killed young Luís Carvalho.
