A distraught father has told of how he learnt that his 16-year-old son had been killed in an early morning traffic accident involving a GNR officer who had been drinking.
According to news reports, the off-duty policeman was well over the legal limit and on the brink of a ‘criminal’ blood alcohol level at 9.20am.
The tragedy happened early on Thursday, May 1, as young Leandro Carvalho was cycling near Aquashow, Quarteira, on the way to helping set up a sporting event.
“I got a phone call to tell me my son had been in an accident,” an emotional Manuel Carvalho told Correio da Manhã.
“When I got to the hospital, they told me he had died. I didn’t want to believe it.”
Leandro had “always been very careful” when riding his bike on the roads, said his father, querying the speed at which the GNR driver had been going, as the youngster was reported to have been projected more than 20 metres.
The accident is now being investigated by traffic police, with the GNR’s public relations department confirming that the driver was indeed an off-duty policeman but not saying either way whether he had been drinking.
News services have quoted blood alcohol levels of 1.19gr/l, which is just 0.01g/l from a limit being considered ‘criminal’.
Little mention has been given to the fact that this level was registered at 9.20 in the morning.
The officer – a member of the GNR’s criminal investigation unit – was reported to have been off duty when the accident happened, and driving his own car.
According to Correio da Manhã, Leandro “would have hit the side of the car” in an area that was signed-posted as having verges in poor condition.
“The area is dangerous, and there are signs in place advising this,” wrote the paper.
