Tragic Highway Crash In Romania Involving Gran Canaria Family
A fatal accident affected a Gran Canaria family traveling through central Romania when a curve with a double solid line and clear vertical signs warned drivers to slow down. The 63-year-old driver who caused the crash and four family members died after the collision on a national road last Sunday. The family, from the capital’s Hoya Andrea neighborhood, included José and María del Carmen Rodríguez and their daughters Alicia, 21, and Cristina, 15. The driver who caused the crash was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries as authorities began a formal investigation to determine the sequence of events and take statements from the driver.
Rodríguez family members had journeyed to central Romania for a brief visit on December 1. Alicia, a fourth-year student of Elementary Education at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, had participated in a six-month Erasmus exchange program in Sibiu, in the Transylvania region. She was accompanied by two classmates from ULPGC, friends from their days at Colegio San Juan Bosco in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The group had eight days to explore Romania in a rented Dacia Logan, planning to capture more memories at major sites.
Public Holiday In Romania
On Sunday, the plan had been to visit Brasov, a medieval city often described as the focal point of Transylvania, cradled by the Carpathian Mountains. On the return journey, at night, they were traveling the DN1 national road, also known as E68 in the European system, which connects Bucharest with the border areas near Brasov, Sibiu, and Hungary. Just before nine o’clock, as national traffic swelled due to a public holiday, tragedy struck. Local media reported a high traffic volume on that stretch of road due to bridge works completed that day.
The accident happened at kilometer 294.5, with the family nearing their destination, traveling in a BMW X3 SUV. The responsible driver allegedly crossed a long straight section where overtaking is prohibited. Before reaching the bend where the fatal crash occurred, multiple warnings appeared on the asphalt, along with the standard vertical signs and a double line separating lanes, signaling the danger of the curve. Police detailed that these warnings did not deter the 63-year-old man from attempting to overtake a minibus in the middle of a curve, where the speed limit was 50 kilometers per hour.
Dad Was Driving
A number of early reports misidentified the operator of the Dacia Logan. It was clarified that José Rodríguez, not his daughter Alicia, was at the wheel when the collision happened. The Dacia Logan collided head-on with the BMW and was then struck from the rear by a BMW 5 Series driven by a 20-year-old woman who survived the crash. Emergency services, including ambulances and firefighters, attended the scene in large numbers in a bid to resuscitate the parents, who suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest and could not be saved. Alicia survived the initial impact and was transported to Sibiu hospital, but her death was later confirmed. Cristina, aged 15, succumbed to the severity of her injuries a couple of days later, after remaining in a coma.
The male driver at the center of the incident was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Romanian police opened an investigation and, in the absence of his progress, charged him with manslaughter and related offenses.
A day after the crash, Sibiu recorded another tragedy, as two cars collided on a highway, resulting in a separate fatality.