Two people have died and ten others injured, three very seriously, after a horror accident on a popular Costa del Sol seafront. The injured were mowed down on the promenade of Fuengirola, near Malaga, last night.
The accident happened at around 10pm when the area was packed with local people and tourists out and about for the start of Easter. The two people who died were aged 47 and 25 while the driver who lost control is said to have tested positive for alcohol and did not have a driving licence.
Aged 45 and of Iranian nationality, she was arrested by police at the scene and now faces charges of two homicides by gross negligence, injuries by serious negligence, as well as a crime against road safety for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Police said the woman was driving along the promenade in the direction of Marbella at speed, when she lost control and ended up leaving the road and smashing into a corner column of a building.
According to municipal information, the 47-year-old passenger of the vehicle died as a result of the impact, along with a pedestrian run over by the vehicle which, after crashing, travelled a few metres on the pavement, running over the terrace of a pizzeria and colliding with another vehicle.
The occupants of this car were not harmed, according to police sources to 112 but the second fatality was a 25-year-old man, a native of the province of Seville, who died on the spot after being run over.
Ten other people were injured of varying degrees, including the rest of the occupants of the vehicle that caused the accident. Along with the driver and passenger, who has lost her life, there was a baby and three men, two 50 years old and one 42 years old. All were injured, the three adult males being in serious condition.
Witnesses described the scene as carnage. One woman sitting on the restaurant terrace said: “I felt almost an earthquake, we were very scared. I saw it in close-up. In fact, I was looking at the street and I saw how the car approached and ran over the boy, who literally flew away. You never believe you are going to witness something like this until you see it at the door of your house.”
“If I were walking down the street, it could have been my turn. From now on I will walk down the street above.” The owner of the ‘Super Market’ bazaar, parallel to the place of the incident, also described the scene.
“At one point everything was filled with police and a tremendous mess was formed, it looked like a Hollywood crime movie,” he said. The impact of the vehicle “sounded like a bomb”, which set off alarm bells. “The whole building shook, I got out quickly,” he said.
“The City Council of Fuengirola regrets the death of two people that occurred last night, on the Paseo Marítimo, as a result of a traffic accident. At the same time, it wishes the speedy recovery of three seriously injured and seven other affected people of various considerations,” said the council on its official X account.
The 112 emergency service received, minutes after 9.30pm, the first of the numerous warnings from individuals who reported that a car had run over the terrace of a restaurant and that it had run over several people on the Paseo Marítimo Rey de España. Immediately, the coordination centre activated the 061 Health Emergency Centre, the local police, firefighters and the National Police.
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