The Algarve’s notorious EN125 has knocked Lisbon’s CRIL off the top spot as Portugal’s most dangerous road.
The EN125, which stretches some 157km between Vila do Bispo in the western Algarve to Vila Real de Santo António in the east, gained two new Black Spots between 2016 and 2017, for a current total of five.
This saw the CRIL, one of Lisbon’s main inner ring-roads, which had topped the table with three serious accident spots, pushed down the table to third.
The A2 motorway, one of the country’s main roads, which links the Algarve to Lisbon and includes the landmark 25 de Abril bridge, came in in second place, with four Black Spots.
The CRIL dropped to third place, along with four other roads, each with three Black Spots. In 2017, 305 serious accidents involving victims were registered on the CRIL, which is up by 86 accidents on the year before.
Last year, a total of 510 people died on Portugal’s roads, with more than 2,000 having sustained serious injuries in road accidents.
In related news, Sunday and Monday were particularly deadly days for drivers on Portugal’s roads.
The GNR police registered three deaths and nine seriously injured in accidents across mainland Portugal on Sunday, with one fatal accident and two other serious crashes having occurred Sunday night, in various parts of the country. And on Monday morning, six construction workers were killed in a crash in Pombal (see full story on page 14).
Four of the victims – identified as Rafael Mendes, Cristóvão Carreira, Ruben Ferreira and Joel Ferreira, aged 21 to 33 and employees of the company Pavimilhas – were travelling in one of the vehicles involved in the smash on the IC8.
Travelling in the opposite direction were the other two victims, Sebastião Miranda, 40, and Heldér Gomes, in his 30s, who both worked for construction company Ilhaugusto - Construções.
All six were on their way to work when the accident happened.