Tragic Accident Near Tangier Claims Lives of Basque Father and Son En Route to Mauritania

The father was traveling to Mauritania with his wife and their five children, as he did every summer, when they were victims of a serious traffic accident in Tangier, Morocco. The trailer of a truck lost a wheel that hit the windshield of their vehicle. The father, a professional truck driver, "died on the spot," police sources told El Correo, adding that one of the children died the next day.

"His wife, sitting next to him, managed to take the wheel and brake as best she could, thus saving the lives of the other children," explain the same sources who also specified that another child, seriously injured in the head, was admitted to the Mohamed V hospital in Tangier. Two daughters and his wife emerged unscathed from the accident. The latter, still in shock, is undergoing "psychological treatment" to help her overcome this ordeal. Four survivors were evacuated to a medical center in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The family has been residing in the capital of Alava "for several years" and took the road to Mauritania at the end of last month. "They arrived in Algeciras, took a ferry to Sebta and continued on to Tangier," recounts a relative of the family. They crossed the Moroccan city at dawn and found themselves behind this truck on what appeared to be a routine road. The police have opened an investigation to determine the causes of the accident.