Couple waiting for help in car on hard shoulder, regulation triangle in place
A 70-year-old woman was killed yesterday morning, and her 75-year-old husband seriously injured, after breaking down on the A22 motorway near Olhão.
According to reports, the couple were in their car, on the hard-shoulder, pointing in the direction of Faro (from Spain).
They had already placed the regulation triangle on the tarmac, some distance behind their vehicle – but for reasons unclear, a white van ploughed into them.
The van driver, described as “in his 30s” and Spanish, appears only to have suffered light injuries.
Correio da Manhã writes that emergency services attending the scene tried in vain to resuscitate the woman.
Her husband was transported in “a critical condition” to Faro Hospital, and a dog also travelling in the car was taken to a veterinary clinic (this reported by Jornal de Notícias)
Due to the violence of the impact, the couple’s grey Peugeot was “destroyed”, says CM.
The couple’s nationality has not been established by either newspaper.
The area of the A22 where the accident happened was closed for three hours, requiring traffic to be diverted onto the EN125.
