A father and his 10-year-old son die in tractor accident after pilgrimage procession in Asturias

The village of Arrojas, a rural village a few kilometres from Cudillero in the Asturias region in the north of Spain where a dozen families who have known each other all their lives live, was heartbroken by the death of Javier Fernández Martínez and his son Jesús Fernández López in a tractor accident on Friday night.

"Nobody can explain this tragedy. We can't understand it", said the few neighbours who took to the streets on Saturday, deeply affected by the accident . The tragedy unfolded at around 11pm on Friday, when both were returning home from the Santa Ana pilgrimage, an annual neighbourhood gathering, with which Javier has always been an active participant. He was, in fact, one of the neighbours who used to take the virgin out in procession and this Friday he had been no less. Together with his neighbour and friend Severino and two other acquaintances, they had taken the saint's image out in the procession. Afterwards they had enjoyed the afternoon and said their goodbyes "until next year's pilgrimage".

It was late at night, when Javier and the little boy were returning home, in the area known as Cuesta del Cesto, when the fatal accident happened. The tractor that Javier was driving was already entering the adjoining farm from the road that brought them from the hermitage, when for reasons that are now being investigated by the Guardia Civil, it plunged down the steep slope of the adjoining farm. Javier was thrown off. His son, aged 10, remained on the vehicle, which was unable to stop, when it crashed into a granary, which collapsed immediately as a result of the impact.

The 112 emergency coordination centre was alerted at 11pm. Firefighters from the Asturias provincial brigade (SEPA) from the Pravia and Valdés fire stations were immediately mobilised. The body of the child, who died immediately, had to be rescued by the fire brigade. His father, aged 45, was stabilised at the scene and rushed to the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, HUCA, with severe trauma but died in the operating theatre in the early hours of Saturday morning.

In the early hours of the morning, residents who had not heard about what had happened during the night began to receive the tragic news. They had no words, no consolation. "Javier was a responsible, prudent person, very knowledgeable about this area and a great professional. In fact, he has a tractor and digger company", those who a few hours earlier had shared with father and son the celebration of Santa Ana tried in vain to find an explanation for what had happened and could not hold back their tears.

"It's terrible," they repeated. The tractor involved in the tragedy, which became a jumble of iron, remained at the scene of the incident, under the rubble of the granary, awaiting authorisation to remove it and to take the necessary tests to clarify the cause of the incident. A few metres away is Javier's family home, where his parents and grandparents live, who were attended to by the immediate response team for psychosocial intervention (ERIE) of the Red Cross.

Those who consider themselves family more than neighbours said that Javier was as well known as he was loved "from Oviñana to Pravia". A native of the parish, after getting married he lived for some years in Oviñana, where he had his children, Ángela and Jesús. After their separation, his wife returned to her parents' house, in Cuesta del Cesto. Some time ago, he had already rebuilt his life with his partner, Andrea Lopes, with whom he lived in Armayor. It so happens that she, a native of Brazil, was on a trip to her homeland to visit her family.

Little Jesús was, like the rest of the family, a member of the parish, although he continued to live with his mother and sister in Oviñana. It was common to see him "with the güelo", happy to take part in the work on the farm, always active, "much more fond of agricultural machinery than of little toys", the neighbours sadly recalled. "He was happy here. He may have inherited his father's passion for agricultural vehicles, a passion that Javier had turned into his profession. Employed for a long time, he eventually decided to take a leave of absence and dedicate himself to this trade. The residents of Cuesta del Cesto said that "he drove tractors before cars", that he had several vehicles, "good machinery" with which he worked all over the area.

Those who knew and loved the whole family accompanied them in the afternoon to the mortuary in Cudillero, where the funeral chapel was set up. The joint funeral of father and son was held on Sunday at half past six in the afternoon, in the parish church of San Roque de Oviñana. Afterwards, Javier was buried in the Piñera cemetery. And the body of little Jesús was cremated at the Funerarias del Occidente mortuary in Barcia, Valdés.