Agualva-Cacém: runaway bus kills two women at a stop near Sintra
A Carris Metropolitana bus mounted a stop in Agualva-Cacém and killed two women, leaving around 20 injured. Here is what is known about the crash.
Two women were killed and around 20 people injured on Tuesday morning in Agualva-Cacém, in the municipality of Sintra, when a Carris Metropolitana bus mounted a stop and struck people who were waiting for transport. The crash happened at about 9:40am, next to the railway station, which was briefly closed while emergency crews worked.
What happened in Agualva-Cacém?
According to the first accounts, the bus went out of control and hit the stop where several passengers were standing. The two women who died were aged between 30 and 40. One line of inquiry points to the driver possibly confusing the pedals, but the exact cause is still to be established by the authorities.
How many were injured, and where were they taken?
Emergency services counted around 20 injured, most with minor injuries, some of them passengers who had been travelling inside the bus itself. Four people were reported to be in a more serious condition. The injured were taken mainly to Amadora-Sintra Hospital and to São Francisco Xavier in Lisbon, in a large response involving firefighters, the INEM medical service and the PSP police.
Agualva-Cacém station, one of the busiest points on the Sintra line, was disrupted during the rescue operation, affecting trains and buses in the area. Investigators will now have to work out whether the crash was caused by human error, a mechanical fault, or a combination of the two.
A road accident of this severity, at the height of the morning rush and beside a busy station, leaves a mark on the region — and we will follow the case and the official findings as they emerge. Emergency and road-safety information is available from Portugal’s Civil Protection authority. For context on the pressure on the region’s hospitals, see our piece on the ULS Tâmega e Sousa emergency departments.
Image: José Carlos Oliveira / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
