Firefighters intervene in the accident of a vehicle that crashed into a ravine in Calafat.
The Mossos d’Esquadra suspect that the 48-year-old man who drove the vehicle involved in the accident in Calafat (Baix Ebre) intentionally drove the car into the ravine. His parents, both over 70 years old, died as a result of the accident. The man is being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, as the Catalan police confirmed to this newspaper. According to police, initial indications indicate that he was suffering from a psychotic breakdown and paranoia at the time the vehicle fell into the water.
The accident occurred shortly before nine o’clock on Saturday evening. Various witnesses told the Catalan police that a driver was driving at high speed along the Ronda de Mar, in an urbanization of Calafat, in the municipality of l’Ametlla de Mar, when he crossed a wooded area and fell into a ravine with a height difference of about 20 meters. His parents and a dog were traveling in the submerged car, but he survived.
The parents died as a result of the accident. Firefighters had to get the father out of the vehicle where he was trapped, and the mother was found unconscious in the water and eventually died. The son was found alive hours later, just before midnight, about 330 meters from the shore, where he reached nowhere and asked for help.
Catalan police found that the man, who showed signs of hypothermia, was behaving incomprehensibly. According to police, doctors already determined at the Verge de la Cinta hospital in Tortosa that he was suffering from a psychotic breakdown and paranoia. Finally, the doctors decided to admit him to the Pere Mata d’Amposta center. The Catalan police assure that he is not in custody and that they are waiting for the further development of the case and his state of health to decide how to proceed.
The incident forced an extensive deployment by the Generalitat Fire Department, which deployed 27 people with 14 crews and two boats, as well as underwater and mountain specialists. They were joined by a maritime rescue helicopter for nighttime aerial searches and a Red Cross boat, as well as members of the Mossos, the Civil Guard, the local police and four units of the emergency medical system.
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