Lorry overturns and crushes taxi in Carlos Haya tunnel in Malaga city

Firefighters, the Guardia Civil Traffic Unit, Local Police, road maintenance crews and the emergency medical services attended the scene.

According to sources, the taxi driver was trapped inside his vehicle and was injured, but conscious. The lorry driver was not injured.

Initially, the main theory is that the rainfall in the area and the wet road surface may have caused the lorry to lose control; however, the authorities will also investigate whether the vehicle was travelling at excessive speed, according to sources.

The accident caused significant traffic holdups. The slip road onto Avenida de Valle-Inclán remained completely closed to traffic, whileon the MA-20, traffic was restricted to the left-hand lane only in the tunnel. The Malaga traffic management centre advised drivers to avoid the area and take the A-7 as an alternative route.

The Carlos Haya cut-and-cover tunnel has been the scene of other serious road accidents in recent years. One of the most tragic occurred in February 2017, when a four-year-old boy lost his life after the vehicle in which he was travelling collided with the central reservation on the MA-20, just 50 metres from the tunnel.

Also, in December 2013, the driver of a car was killed when the vehicle overturned inside the tunnel, in an accident in which two other people were injured.