Six people died this morning following a head-on collision between two vans in the IC8 at Pombal.
The dead were workers at local businesses. Four of the victims worked for Pavimilhas and two worked for Ilhaugusto Construções.
The head on collision was of such violence that all the men died at the scene.
"All the occupants" died on the spot, confirmed the GNR’s Daniel de Matos, correcting earlier media reports that up to nine had died.
The Pombal firefighting service commander, Paulo Albano, said that when personnel arrived at the crash site, none of the victims had vital signs, noting that their main concern was "to try to figure out if anyone was alive and create space to make this assessment."
The dead were all residents of the municipality of Pombal, five were Portuguese nationals and one was Brazilian, confirmed the mayor of Pombal, Diogo Mateus.
Morning fog is said to have been a factor in the accident that happened at 07:04 on Monday morning. The road was reopened around 1pm.
