The Rotterdam Police arrest the Spanish driver for the fatal outrage of six people

An experienced driver in international transportation, 43 years old, Spanish nationality, and with an immaculate record in El Mosca. This is the professional profile of the truck driver arrested by the Rotterdam Police for the fatal hit of six people, while the agents try to locate a van who is also involved in the road accident, which occurred at a neighborhood barbecue in the Dutch village of Zuidzijde.

[Tres muertos y varios heridos al estrellarse un camión español contra una barbacoa en Róterdam]

“The hypothesis being considered is that a van crossed in the middle of the truck and when the driver tried to avoid it, he left the road, with the misfortune that he lost control of the truck, destroying a dam where there was a neighborhood party”, as explained to EL ESPAÑOL by a spokesman for El Mosca: company expert in the transport of goods by land, sea and air, located in the Murcian municipality of Molina de Segura.

“Police are looking a that van, white“, emphasizes the aforementioned spokesman. The investigators consider the testimony of the driver of the van to be key to reconstructing this multiple outrage that has shocked the entire country. Local newspapers, such as Nrc Handelsblad or Algemeen Dagblad, report that the tragedy took place when the neighborhood of the Hoeksche Waard neighborhood was celebrating its traditional barbecue: an appointment that had been suspended for two years due to the coronavirus.

This Saturday they celebrated again the Barbecue with the assistance of more of fifty people, at the foot of a dam from the village of Zuidzijde which is attached to a narrow road. The event turned tragic at 6:00 p.m., when a refrigerated truck from El Mosca invaded the area without control, running over a group of people and burying others. In fact, according to the aforementioned newspapers, the emergency services had to mobilize a crane to lift the large-tonnage vehicle.

The Efe agency has reported that the Rotterdam Police know that the truck was parked near the dam before the accident and then the vehicle moved to the barbecue area for unknown reasons. Hence the interest of the investigators in locating the aforementioned white van. “The hypothesis being considered is that the van has encountered a dangerous maneuver that forced the truck to avoid it so as not to crash and then he left the road”, as the spokesman for El Mosca insists.

The truck was empty

trailer with refrigerator trailer he was driving empty because he was on his way to pick up a shipment of agricultural products in a town that is a few kilometers from the village where the barbecue was held and that belongs to the town of Nieuw-Beijerland.

“He is a driver who has been working for the company for years, he had never given any problems, the truck did not present any technical problem and We have not received any alert or warning from the Police of Rotterdam that the driver has tested positive for alcohol or drugs”, according to the aforementioned spokesman for one of the leading companies in the transport sector in the Region of Murcia.

“He skipped a give way”

Such a professional profile and the version of the facts is corroborated by a senior official of the company in statements to this newspaper: “The driver is Spanish, he does not drink and what happened, as we have been informed, was because a white van skipped a give way and by avoiding it invaded a roundabout where there was a barbecue”. This manager remarks that what happened is “a very sad fact that has us dismayed”.

The Rotterdam Police have requested the collaboration of neighbors and passers-by who may have photos or videos to clarify the circumstances of this tragedy. Initially, the number of deceased was three, but over the hours, the figure has risen to six and seven people are hospitalized: six in serious condition and another with a critical prognosis due to the violence of the impact.

The six fatalities, according to the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, are a 50 year old man, from Nieuw-Beijerland; a 32-year-old woman from Oud-Beijerland; a 75-year-old woman from Nieuw-Beijerland; a 41-year-old man from Goudswaard; a 28-year-old woman from Goudswaard and a 62-year-old man from Nieuw-Beijerland.

The freight company has not yet been able to contact the driver. “is incommunicadowe only know that the driver has used the call that the Police allows him to contact his relatives.