Incomprehensible delay by the Guardia Civil, which took more than an hour and a half to reach a road traffic accident on the Autovía del Mediterráneo.
22:35 on the night of Wednesday 6 September: a car hit a van that was approaching the A7 roundabout in the Los Hidalgos area of Manilva. After the collision, the driver of the car lost control completely and crashed into the crash barrier, leaving his vehicle completely blocking one of the two lanes of the road. The driver, a Manilva resident, got out of the vehicle on his own, although somewhat dazed. The occupants of the van, a Polish family with at least one child who were on holiday in the area, also got out of the vehicle with no apparent injuries.
Up to this point everything might seem more or less normal, a road accident like any other, but the worst was yet to come. They did not know that they would have to wait more than an hour and a half for the Guardia Civil to turn up to draw up the accident report, since the Polish nationals did not agree to complete a joint accident statement.
With the vehicle blocking the road at the A7 roundabout, the Local Police, who arrived a few minutes after the accident, decided to take note of what had happened and to have the vehicle removed while waiting for the Guardia Civil to arrive, even though this was not their responsibility as the road falls under state jurisdiction.
At around 23:15 the road maintenance and conservation workers arrived and began cleaning the road, which was covered in gravel, some oil and pieces of the vehicles involved, but the Guardia Civil still had not arrived.
At 23:55 the Barranco tow truck service arrived to remove the damaged vehicle, but it could not proceed until authorised by the Guardia Civil, which still had not reached the scene.
The Polish family, despite not needing medical assistance, grew desperate, not really understanding what was happening or why they had to wait there so long, until the Manilva Local Police had to leave the scene to attend an emergency call.
00:06 the Guardia Civil finally arrived at the scene of the accident and began drawing up the corresponding report. It took 1 hour and 36 minutes to attend an accident on the Autovía del Mediterráneo, with a vehicle blocking traffic at the roundabout and a Guardia Civil barracks less than 1.5 km from the scene.
