There are four other missing persons; several technical experts who had denounced the poor state of the roadway from four years ago

Located approximately 30 kilometers from the border with Spain, the old national road 255 continues to tour dramatic for the heart of the Portuguese Alentejo. The road tour between the impressive marble quarries, farms, huge the came the stones used to build churches and magnificent palaces of cities like Borba and Vila Viçosa. It was in the stretch that connects the two towns where on Monday evening, a 100-metre stretch of the road collapsed in his step on the strip that separates the two quarries. At least three vehicles plunged from a height of 90 metres and were buried under a barrage of stones.

During the night a hundred effective relief participated in the rescue, but so far they have only recovered the bodies of two people. The authorities Portuguese confirm that there are at least four people missing, and that could take weeks to find all the victims of the tragedy. The National Authority for Civil Protection (ANPC) says that rescue efforts continue, and qualify the operation of the “extreme complexity,” given the amount of earth that was displaced to collapse the road.

The disaster has generated much consternation in Portugal since everything points to a tragedy that could have been avoided by the Municipality of Borba, under whose guardianship is the old national road. During several years the technical experts pointed out the poor state of the old national road and was warned that it might collapse at any time. The danger was also denounced by the managing companies of the quarries affected, whose representatives held several meetings with members of the municipal corporation to study the closure of the road.

Since at least 2014, the city Council was in possession of several reports detailing the situation, as confirmed by a newspaper article of that period in which it appears the mayor of Borba, António Anselmo, referring to the same and stating that the municipality was studying the future of the road. When there is an alternative road that connects the two cities on a journey much more safe from a decade ago, it was hoped that the closure of the 255 was produced in a short time, but the road remained passable until late Monday afternoon.

In a statement to the press this Tuesday, the mayor Anselmo has emphasized that what happened was “an accident, a calamity”. “Naturally, it will be analyzed by the competent authorities -including the city Council itself – to determine who has done right or wrong in this whole process. And we’ll be here to take on the responsibilities. But right now that is not in cause; now what we need to do is help the survivors, and make sure the dead are respected. […] The apology does not ask; what is done is to avoid that there are grounds for giving them. We are going to study what happened so that such a tragedy should happen here.”

in view of the possibility that negligence led to the disaster, the office of the Prosecutor lusa has announced the opening of an investigation to clarify the causes of the collapse of the road.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) has defended the municipal corporation of Borba to note that, like many other municipalities, the city Council was forced to take charge of the 255 when the State decided to declassify it as a national road, but in no time he received financial support to maintain it.

“The town councils invest what they can, but many of these roads disqualified are delivered in wretched conditions, and the municipalities do not have the financial capacity to rehabilitate,” explained Ribau Esteves, president of the ANMP, in the radio-lusa. “The State has to spend money to these infrastructures. Not to do so, it will be impossible to prevent the occurrence of accidents of this nature”.

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