A second head-on collision on the EN125 in less than a week left one dead and five injured, one of them seriously on
The stretch of road near Quinta dos Vales on the EN125 between Lagoa and Portimão bridge was closed after the accident at 2.30 on Thursday afternoon.
The commander of Lagoa Bombeiros said that two elderly foreigners, one German adult and three youngsters aged between 11 and 15 were involved in the crash.
The 80-year-old British couple, resident locally, were seriously injured on a road where roadworks are taking place and have narrowed the carriageway. The woman later died in hospital and is said to have been a resident living in the Lagoa area.
The injured were assisted by the ambulance and fire services at the scene, some having to be cut from the wreckage, and later taken to the nearby Portimão's Hospital.
Fire service personnel from Lagoa, Portimão, Silves and Vila do Bispo attended the scene.
Last Satuday 23rd January, the EN125 near Zoomarine, Guia was blocked after a head-on collision left three injured; one resident British expat in his 80s and two Swedish tourists,Kurt Backman and Ann Katrin Brunholm, later contacted this news service to say that they -
“...are both pretty well and have been very well taken care of by Faro and Portimão hospitals.
"Thanks to all the people and personnel that were involved at the place of the accident.”
On Friday 29th January an accident, again on the EN125, in Vila do Bispo in the estern Algarve left an Austrian woman dead and passenger injured when their car left the road and hit a tree.
The new government, despite pressure to cancel or reduce tolls on the Via do Infante motorway, has failed to act act and the volume and pressure of traffic on the EN125 consequently is higher. A rash of long-overdue roadworks also is making life trickier for commuters and other road users suffering long delays.
The failure to address the Algarve's road infrastructure is partly due to the Passos Coelho government cynically cancelling a substantial EN125 road upgrade initiative that had been promised only to gain support from the region's mayors when the Via do Infante tolls were being imposed.
This blatant bribe then was cancelled under the heading of 'austerity Portugal' and the hotch-potch of occassional repairs, abandoned by-passes and ignored upgrades has bedevilled the region ever since.
The balance of the blame lies with Estradas de Portugal, latterly Infraestruturas de Portugal, whose President António Ramalho has been adept as spending money on rail and road projects well outside the Algarve where it is more important (politically) so to do.
The result of the politics is a growing list of obituaries for those killed on an overcrowded and dangerous EN125 road system that in summertime becomes an impassable embarrassment.
