Another coach has crashed, this time in the Alentejo near Almodôvar, Beja, at around 18.30 killing three passengers.
The Renex coach was taking passengers on its usual Algarve:Lisbon route and crashed killing three and injuring 17 including the driver, nine of them are in a serious condition.
The fatalities are two women, one 40 and one 50, and a man also aged 50.
"The nine most serious injuries are not critical," said Cátia Alves of the emergency servievce INEM.
The A2 was closed in both directions for some hours as emergency services attended to the injured.
Alves said that the INEM helicopter based in Loulé and three specialist ambulances were sent, in addition to 10 ambulances, firemen and two teams of psychologists.
The emergency medical post that was used on Wednesday night at the coach accident on the Via do Infante motorway near Paderne again was used to provide immediate assistance to the injured prior to hospitalisation.
By 20.40 the wounded had been transported to hospitals in Beja and Faro, and for those in urgent need, the emergency departments at Castro Verde and Albufeira had been used.
The coach passengers originally were thought all to have been Portuguese nationals but later reports indicate that one of the badly injured passengers is a foreigner.
Renex is another company in the Barraqueiro transport group, owned by Humberto Pedrosa who is the majority shareholder in Gateway, the successful bidder for TAP.
No details have been released yet as to possible reasons for the accident. The driver was not injured seriously and underwent an alcohol test which showed he had not been drinking.
