The sleepiness of the truck driver could be the cause of the accident that took place yesterday morning on the AP-4 motorway near Los Palacios (Seville), in which six people died, including two guards civilians from the rapid action group (GAR), and three others have been injured.
Although the investigation remains open, sources close to the case have indicated that the accident, which took place after the driver of the articulated vehicle skipped a routine drug control, would have been caused by unintentional causes, and acquires more force the possibility that the man suffered an episode of "drowsiness or a lack of attention".
At the moment, the tachograph of the truck, which came from La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), has been downloaded and the speed at which the driver was traveling at the time of the collision, which took place at 4:40 a.m. on Tuesday, after he made a sudden maneuver that generated a scissor effect with which he ended up running over the victims. The 59-year-old man has been remanded in prison without bail at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, and is charged with six alleged crimes of reckless homicide and three crimes of more serious injury through recklessness, as as confirmed by sources from the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia. In his statement in court he assured that he did not see the control of the Civil Guard. It will be the court of first instance and instruction number 4 of Utrera, on duty at the time of the events, which will take charge of the case.
For his part, the deputy delegate of the central government in Seville, Francisco Toscano, assured that the surveillance operation established at kilometer 24 of the AP-4 was in a "visible" area and was "well signposted", given that it indicated that the control was made up of 17 agents, "double" the minimum stipulated by the protocol.
Although at first there was speculation about the possibility that the driver of the truck had intentionally skipped the control, the truth is that the Civil Guard ruled out this way and pointed out that the accident would have taken place due to "accidental" causes ". Apparently, the hypothesis that is now gaining strength, as pointed out by commander Rafael Jiménez Onetti, who emphasized that the arrested person came out unharmed and tested negative for alcohol and drugs, is that the driver was fatigued, in an episode of "drowsiness" or that there was "a lack of attention". Likewise, Jiménez Onetti indicated that the accident "is the most terrible" he has witnessed in his 40 years of professional career.
There have been six fatalities in this tragic event, two agents of the rapid action group (GAR) and four other civilians who were at the time in traffic control. One of them came from Barbate (Cádiz), another of the victims was from the Sevillian town of Dos Hermanas, the third deceased was from Ceuta and the fourth victim was a foreigner.
As for the dead agents, there is First Corporal Eneko Lira, 36 years old and a native of Barakaldo, and Civil Guard Juan Jesús López, 34 years old and from El Ejido, in Almeria, a town that decreed a day of official mourning for his death. The two professionals had been companions of the agent who died in February in Barbate, when a narco boat rammed the boat they were patrolling.
On the other hand, in the incident, five other officers suffered damage of varying degrees after being attacked. Two of them, with minor injuries, were treated in health centers, while the serious ones were referred to two hospitals in the Seville capital, two of them are admitted to the Valme hospital and a third, in condition critical, is being treated in the trauma area of the Virgen del Rocío hospital.
Since the news was made public, authorities and political leaders have sent their condolences to the families of the victims and the State security forces, including the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the Junta d Andalusia, Juanma Moreno.
