This Sunday, the roads of La Rioja were the scene of a tragic day with two fatalities and six injuries of various degrees in two accidents. A one-year-old girl died on the N-232, in the municipality of Foncea, where a crash occurred … frontal between two cars in the early afternoon. Five other people were injured. A few hours before, another accident, which occurred at noon on the AP-68 highway, in the municipality of Fuenmayor, cost the life of a 69-year-old woman from Barcelona. The driver of the car in which she was traveling, which left the road, apparently without the involvement of any other vehicle, was seriously injured.
With them, there are now seven people who have died on Rioja roads so far this year. The day is marked in black as one of the most mournful in recent times.
Head-on collision on the N-232
The most serious accident occurred after 4:00 p.m. at kilometer point 467 of the N-232 highway, in Foncea, in the area known as La Cadena, about two hundred meters from the border between the provinces of La Rioja and Burgos. According to sources from the Government Delegation, two vehicles collided head-on due to invasion of the opposite lane of one of them.
As a result of the impact, the one-year-old girl died in one of the cars and three other people were seriously injured. Two occupants of the other car were also seriously injured. Of the five injured, four were transferred to the San Pedro de Logroño Hospital and a fifth was evacuated to the Burgos Hospital by the Haro Life Support Unit.
Several fire trucks, Civil Guard patrols and various health services mobilized by SOS Rioja attended the scene of the events. In addition, the Galeno medical helicopter intervened, transporting at least one person. The national highway N-232 remained closed for several hours, forcing vehicle traffic through alternative routes. Finally, around 7:00 p.m., it was reopened and traffic was restored.
Route exit on the AP-68
Hours earlier, around noon, a 69-year-old woman from Barcelona died and a man was seriously injured in another traffic accident on the AP-68 highway, between the towns of Cenicero and Fuenmayor, in the municipality of the latter. The event occurred when the vehicle in which they were traveling left the road at kilometer 115, near the Berberana company.
The car was traveling in the direction of Zaragoza and, for unknown reasons, it went off the right side, as confirmed by sources from the La Rioja Civil Traffic Guard and the Government Delegation, right at the entrance to a rest area of the highway. There were no other vehicles involved in the accident.
The injured man, who was the driver, was taken to the San Pedro Hospital by the emergency services sent to the scene by SOS Rioja. The deceased woman was traveling as an occupant. The intervention of the CEIS Firefighters was necessary to access the interior of the vehicle and proceed to the rescue using extrication techniques. The health teams of the Rioja Health Service could not do anything for the woman, who died at the scene.
141 deaths in the decade
With the two deaths this Sunday there are now seven fatalities on the Rioja roads so far this year, which take their toll very dearly. In the last decade, the accident rates of La Rioja record that 141 people have left their lives on the asphalt of this community.
The seven deaths in these first five months of the year represent figures higher than the average of the last three: in 2021, twelve people died on the roads; in 2022 there were twelve; and in 2023, eleven.
Prior to these dates, and with the exception of 2018, when six people died on the Rioja road network, the number of annual deaths has ranged between fifteen and twenty-three: 18 in 2015, 23 in 2016, 19 in 2017, 18 in 2019 and 15 in 2020.
