Two British men were fatally injured after a suspected drug trafficker’s boat came loose while driving along the RM-12, known as La Manga motorway, near El Algar in Spain
Spain: Two Brits killed in car crash with speedboat on motorway
Two British men who were killed instantly in Spain after a boat came off the back of a suspected drug trafficker’s trailer were decapitated, recent reports have revealed.
Both were fatally injured after the vessel flew through the air of a dual carriageway and hit their Seat Leon at speed as they travelled near the resort of La Manga in Spain. The death smash occurred occurred around 9.30pm on the RM-12, a dual carriageway known colloquially as La Manga motorway, near to El Algar between La Manga and Cartagena.
The driver of the vehicle which had been carrying the suspect vessel on a trailer fled the scene and was still being hunted by police today. According to a first responder at the scene, the boat had been “tied to the trailer badly” and came loose, crashing on top of the car the British men were travelling in at speeds of over 100kmph (62mph).
One of the first emergency responders on the scene told Spanish news website El Confidencial: “The Zodiac was a ‘narco lancha’ because it didn’t have a number plate and it had been tied to the trailer badly, with the bad luck that it came loose and came off and crashed on top of the car the British men were in behind it at between 100 to 120kms an hour. The driver tried to dodge it but couldn’t and the car ended up a write-off. Two of the occupants died instantly. They were decapitated.”
A police source added: “Officers identified the three British occupants of the car by their passports.” Other local reports, pointing to the probability they were holidaying in the area, said their car boot was filled with golf clubs. Firefighter spent nearly half an hour freeing the bodies of the two Brits who died from the mangled wreckage of their vehicle. They are believed to have been pronounced dead at the scene after emergency responders realised they were unable to do anything to save them.
Police have already said they won’t be formally naming the Brits, although the men who died have been identified locally by their initials only as PD, 49 and JW, 57 and the survivor as IP, aged 54. Earlier a spokesman for the Civil Guard said the men were aged between 47 and 54. Another eight people in six cars travelling behind the trio were injured in the mass pile-up.
A Civil Guard spokesman explained: “A car travelling behind it with three British men inside aged between 47 and 54 smashed into the vessel. Two of those people died and another, who was the driver, was critically injured. Eight other people travelling in six vehicles behind them also crashed into the boat and were injured.
“The driver of the vehicle that was travelling with the speed boat on the trailer fled the scene. He has yet to be arrested. The boat he was carrying that ended up on the dual-carriageway has all the characteristics of a so-called ‘narco lancha’ involved in drug trafficking and an investigation is ongoing.”
It was not immediately clear today if the unnamed British nationals were on holiday or lived in the area. It is also not yet known if they were travelling in a hire car or owned the car they were in. Footage from the scene showed several vehicles at a halt amid the debris on the dual-carriageway by the boat. At least one of the cars involved in the smash ended upside down and another was left with massive damage to its front and its roof caved in.
Although the police said this morning they were only hunting the driver of the four-seater 32ft suspected ‘narco lancha’, it was reported locally he was travelling with a passenger who also fled the scene. Detectives are working on the theory they could have been heading to the coast to smuggle ashore drugs. An emergency response coordination centre reported in the aftermath of the huge pile-up: “Traffic accident on the RM-12 heading towards La Manga in the municipality of El Algar.
