This weekend traditionally sees the return of thousands of Portuguese emigrants heading home to share their summer holidays with family and friends.
In a tragic accident in north west Spain near the village of Cerezal de Aliste, Zamora just 50 kilometres from the Portuguese border, three Portuguese children have died and their father lies critically injured in a local hospital as a summer holiday trip ended in carnage.
The crash instantly will have killed the two boys aged eight and four, and a girl aged 12 with the wreckage-strewn scene the worst many Spanish emergency service staff had seen for years.
The Opel Zafira in which the Portugese family was travelling hit a truck loaded with tyres destined for Holland. The truck and cargo burst into flames, setting light to nearby crops which did not help emergency services as fire department workers has to stop this blaze as well as deal with a burning truck and the car wreckage.
The truck driver was not injured but is said to be deeply affected by the accident and is receiving relevant care.
The family was travelling from Toulouse in France to Murça in the district of Vila Real when at 10:40am local time on Saturday morning, the unthinkable happened.
Remarkably, a 13 year-old girl travelling with the family survived the crash with light injuries. She is thought to be a French friend of the Portuguese girl that died and remains in hospital under observation.
The driver of the car is fighting for his life at the Virgen de la Concha hospital, Zamora.
The road in Spain that the family was travelling on, the 122, often is used by Portuguese returnees and the volume of traffic over the first weekend in August increases journey times and driver fatigue. It is not yet known how the accident happened.
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On the Monday following the accident, a 22-year-old Portuguese man years was stopped by police and arrested in Spain near the accident site having been clocked driving at 221 kmph (137 mph)
The young man was traveling with his wife and eight-month-old daughter and faces 3 to 6 months in prison or a stiff fine.
