Civil Guard agents Eneko Lira and Juan Jesús López died this morning in a car accident in Los Palacios (Seville). Along with them, four other people have died and three officers have been injured, two of them in very serious condition.
The accident took place around 4:40 a.m. this Tuesday when a truck ran over a Civil Guard checkpoint against drug trafficking located at kilometer 20 of the AP-4 highway.
The deceased agents were also colleagues of the civil guard murdered in Barbate last February. First Corporal Eneko Lira Gómez, born in Barakaldo (Bizkaia) but residing in Vitoria (Álava), turned 37 this Wednesday.
His partner, the civil guard Juan Jesús López Álvarez, 34, was born in Almería, was a resident of El Ejido and joined the force in 2019. Like Eneko, he was assigned to the GAR starting in February of last year.
The Court of First Instance and Instruction number one of Utrera (Seville), acting as guard, ordered this Tuesday, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the entry into provisional prison, communicated and without bail, of the truck driver, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA).
Initially, he is accused of six alleged crimes of reckless homicide and three crimes of serious injury due to recklessness. During his court appearance, the detainee gave a statement, since the case itself will be handled by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number four of Utrera, which was on duty when the events occurred.
According to investigation sources, this truck driver, who has returned a negative result in alcohol and drug tests, is 59 years old, is of Spanish nationality and has no criminal record.
The four deceased civilians are a 47-year-old resident of Dos Hermanas (Seville), a 50-year-old resident of Barbate (Cádiz), a 53-year-old citizen of Ceuta and a 20-year-old young man initially of foreign nationality and who would reside in Vizcaya.
One of the most seriously injured would suffer a bilateral pneumothorax and other trauma and would be admitted to the Virgen del Rocío hospital; while another would be affected with a fracture in a leg and a last injured person would suffer a fracture of the femur and also injuries to the pancreas and liver. These last two injured people would be being treated at the Valme hospital.
Commander Rafael Jiménez Onetti explained that the possibility of “drowsiness or lack of attention” on the part of the truck driver would be investigated as possible causes of the accident. The deputy delegate of the central government in Seville, Francisco Toscano Rodero, has reiterated that it is a “road accident due to accidental causes”, alluding to “a distraction, a flash or a mistake” by the truck driver.
