“The tractor driver tried to react, but he couldn’t, I saw him gesturing with his hands. It was packed as if it had stopped, and the musicians’ luck was that they weren’t playing and started running and getting off the street where they could. It was scary.” Manuel García, 73, a resident of Marchena (Seville), has had the horror scene in his mind since last Epiphany the last carriage of the procession ran over the group of people who were on the opposite sidewalk, causing a dead 12 injured.
García was with his wife, Josefi Burgos, 67, and they both watched in panic as the tractor pulling the wagon with about twenty people on it drove in disbelief down the slope in front of Plaza de San Andrés and fled in fear of the public. “As soon as I was safe, I went in search of my grandchildren,” says Burgos. The main hypothesis of the Civil Guard is a failure of the brakes of the tractor, which, after going down the slope, tried to avoid the public and was crossed amid the screams of neighbors.
More information
A 72-year-old woman was killed instantly, struck by the tractor, and two children, one aged two and the other between eight and ten, and an adult were seriously injured. Nine other people were slightly injured. The events took place in a place where there is silence on this Kings Day morning. The neighbors remember the moments of shock from the previous night. “Here a father and his son were caught playing the bass drum in the band and lagging behind. They had bruises and the ambulances took them away, but not everything that could have happened to so many people,” recalls Francisco Ternero, 57, who lives two streets away from the scene of the accident, pointing out the trail of the accident.
The mayor of Marchena, María del Mar Romero (PSOE), asked this Friday whether it was necessary to do without tractors to pull the floats and thus avoid further accidents. 10 years ago, another parade caused the death of a six-year-old boy in Malaga, who ran off to look for sweets without his parents’ control. “There is no such thing as zero risk, but in the future we need to reconsider the format of the Marchena parade, see if the ideal is with agricultural vehicles,” said Romero, who did not go into detail about possible alternatives.
Of the more than 8,000 cities in Spain, many – especially the smaller ones – do not have adequate safety facilities and horseback riding has great latent dangers: many children moving fast and very close to the tractors and carriages with their huge wheels. As presents and sweets fly through the air and fall to the ground, many parents look to the kings and children remain in the risky background.
What affects most is what happens closer. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
Subscribe to
Corner of Plaza de San Andrés in Marchena where the tractor ran over a crowd during the parade on the night of the Magi. PACO PUENTES
At a press conference, accompanied by 13 council members with tears in his eyes and shocked faces, Romero read with great difficulty, touched by emotion: “We are very sorry for what happened, we are very sorry (…). I have to convey the deep state of shock and fear of the people who embodied the kings and their teams, especially Baltasar [que iba sobre la carroza]. The driver and his family are mentally devastated,” he said in a broken voice. As soon as she finished, the city councilor received a comforting hug from her security councilor Manuel Suárez in front of the camera.
The chief sub-inspector of the local police, Miguel Checa, defended that the security operation worked as planned and that this road was not particularly disruptive on the five kilometers of the procession: “This was one of the widest points , perfectly controlled, without any risk and with a small one slope, but almost all streets in the city have a slope”.
Very close to the Plaza de San Andrés last night was Mayor Manuel Suárez, who rushed to comfort loved ones, many of whom were shocked but could not overlook the tragedy. “I had an anxiety attack, like the mayor,” he said, still very upset. The safety facility had a third of the 35 local police officers, between two and four safety assistants per swimmer and at least two volunteers. The government’s sub-contractor in Seville, Carlos Toscano, has pointed out “a mechanical defect in the tractor” in Canal Sur, although the investigation is in the preliminary stages.
The driver, in his 70s, passed an alcohol test like the other tractor drivers before driving. Then he repeated the breathalyzer test along with another drug test. All gave negative results. In addition, it has been proven that all vehicles comply with the compulsory insurance and the TÜV test.
After the incident, Marchena City Council has ordered a four-day official mourning until next January 9th. “Christmas ended yesterday at 8:15 p.m., like the music and the lights,” summed up the mayor, who asked her neighbors not to share the videos of the accident on social networks, but to send them to the agents in charge of investigating and clarifying what happened . The tractor is now in custody for investigators from the Weapons Institute to analyze in the coming days.
In the Plaza de San Andrés, next to four orange trees and a monument to the victims of the 1936 military coup and the Franco regime, the stop sign stood out, very faded with a white eating red that the tractor could not respect .
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits