Five of the six fatalities from a road collision early Saturday on the Itinerário Principal 2 (IP2), near Castro Verde in the Beja district, remain unidentified.
The National Republican Guard (GNR) reports that the five occupants of a vehicle that “caught fire” due to the accident were carbonized beyond recognition.
The only identified victim was a 26-year-old from Almodôvar, who was the occupant of the other vehicle involved in the collision.
Captain Sérgio Carvalho, commander of the Almodôvar Territorial Detachment of the GNR, explained to SIC Notícias that the involved vehicle was a “rental passenger car,” and the occupants were possibly “a family of tourists or a group of friends traveling to the Alentejo region.”
The bodies were transported to the Beja forensic office. The Territorial Command of Beja is investigating and will contact the car’s insurance company to reach the rental company and, eventually, identify the victims.
The causes of the accident are still under investigation, according to the commander.
The head-on collision of the two passenger vehicles occurred at kilometer 387.500 of the IP2, near the village of Castro Verde—head of the Beja district municipality— with authorities notified at 2:06 AM today.
Due to the accident, the IP2 was closed to traffic, with the road reopening early this morning at 7:10 AM, as reported by civil protection and GNR sources.
In the wake of the collision, “one vehicle, carrying five people, caught fire,” spreading to the roadside and “local brush,” but it was “quickly extinguished by firefighters,” the regional command reported.
To the accident scene, 36 operatives were dispatched, supported by 16 vehicles, including resources from firefighters, the GNR, the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM)—with an emergency medical vehicle and immediate life support ambulance—and Estradas da Planície, the road concessionaire.
