The truck driver responsible for the fatal accident that took place in the early hours of this Tuesday on the AP-4 near the Sevillian municipality of Los Palacios-Villafranca and in which six people died, two of them civil guards, will remain in provisional prison. and without bail by order of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of Utrera to prevent him from erasing or manipulating evidence and/or fleeing. This has been confirmed by judicial sources, who have indicated that the order for the driver to go to jail was motivated by a request from the Prosecutor's Office.
The investigation into the incident remains open and the vehicle's tachograph is already being analyzed to determine the circumstances of the accident, although some media outlets indicate that the truck was traveling within the maximum speed allowed for this type of vehicle and that it did not brake before the accident. collision, at least, they point out, there were no braking marks on the road. This last point would confirm the first hypothesis that the Civil Guard, in charge of the case, is considering: that the 59-year-old man suffered an episode of drowsiness or had some distraction at the time of the accident and that is why he did not avoid the control installed at kilometer 24 of the AP-4.
The detainee, who tested negative for alcohol and drugs and was unharmed like his companion, declared in court that he did not see the surveillance device, made up of 17 agents (double the number stipulated). According to the first information from official sources, the driver made a sudden maneuver when he realized the situation that caused the 'scissors effect', that is, the cabin of the articulated vehicle turned to one side while the load swept in the opposite direction, overwhelming to the civil guards and the four individuals who were within the drug control. Apparently, as Diario de Sevilla points out, two of the people who were at this surveillance point at the time of the accident and who also died had a history of drug trafficking.
It was on the same afternoon as yesterday, Tuesday, when the Court gave an order that the driver responsible for the accident, an employee of a company in Huelva that transported vegetables from La Línea de la Concepción, in Cádiz, to Guarromán, in Jaén, would enter prison on charges of the alleged commission of six crimes of reckless homicide and three crimes of serious injuries due to recklessness. As La Vanguardia has learned, this decision was adopted based on the seriousness of the facts, as well as to “ensure the presence of the accused in the process when a risk of flight can be rationally inferred” and to avoid the destruction of sources of evidence.
On the one hand, the Court considers that the detainee, if he were free, “could eliminate said sources of evidence in such an incipient phase of the investigation,” he details, just when the Traffic Detachment of the Civil Guard is preparing the report. technician about the mechanics of the accident, analyzing all the traces of the accident, damage to the vehicles and other elements of the truck.
On the other hand, he points out in his argument, preventive detention is the only “security measure” to avoid “the risk of flight”, since the withdrawal of the passport, the imposition of apudi cata hearings or the setting of a bail “do not offer "sufficient guarantee of the presence of those investigated in the investigation and in the legal act."
The subdelegate of the central government in Andalusia, Francisco Toscano, pointed out that the control established to intercept drugs in the vehicles that traveled along the AP-4 during that day was in a “visible” and “well signposted” area. Despite this, six people lost their lives, two of them civil guards belonging to the Rapid Action Group (GAR). It so happens that both professionals had been companions of the agent who died in Barbate when a drug boat passed over the boat in which he was patrolling.
First Corporal Enejo Lira, 36, from Barakaldo, in Bizkaia, and civil guard Juan Jesús López, 34, from El Ejido, in Almería, lost their lives when they were hit by the articulated vehicle. Five other colleagues were injured to varying degrees in the accident, three of them remain hospitalized in the capital of Seville.
Faced with this event, the associations of civil guards, following the death of two colleagues in the act of duty while carrying out a routine control against drug trafficking, have once again requested the Ministry of the Interior to declare it as a 'risky profession' the work they do.
At the Spanish Association of Civil Guards (AEGC) "we know that it is time to mourn and honor our colleagues" with this claim. "Every minute that passes without being a Risk Profession, every injured person and every dead person will fall on their backs. You – referring to the members of the State Government – are responsible," he says in a statement.
For its part, the Justice Professional Association for the Civil Guard (JUCIL) joins this claim: “What happened only confirms once again the importance of the work that we civil guards carry out being considered a risky profession.” , he points out.
The Independent Civil Guard association (IGC) has also pointed out that the two deceased agents "join the sad black list of civil guards who have lost their lives in the act of service" and therefore urges the Government to "once and everyone recognizes us as a risky profession", while the Unified Association of the Civil Guard (AUGC) demands "a thorough investigation" into this accident, since they demand to have "means consistent with the needs of their work."
The traffic accident that occurred this Tuesday on the AP-4 near Los Palacios-Villafranca, in Seville, is among the most tragic of the last ten years. According to data collected by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), the most serious took place on November 8, 2014 when a bus plunged down a slope in Venta del Olivo, in Cieza (Murcia) in an accident that caused the death of fourteen passengers and injuries to another 42.
The second most serious in terms of number of victims in the last ten years took place on March 20, 2016, also with a bus involved, this time in Freginals (Tarragona). Thirteen people died when the bus carrying foreign students collided with a car on the AP-7 near the aforementioned town. Eight people died on July 22, 2014 in the accident on the A-7 in Cox (Alicante) when a truck invaded the oncoming traffic lane and collided with the van in which the victims, all of Romanian nationality, were traveling. Meanwhile, seven people died in each of these two accidents: the one that took place on April 2, 2016 in Pont de Molins (Girona, with two vehicles involved; and the most recent on Christmas Eve 2022 in an accident involving a Cerdedo-Cotobade bus (Pontevedra).
