Weekends are fatal. Death of six young people in a burning car reinforces statistics

Road accidents continue to be the main cause of violent death among young people in Portugal. On average, 70 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 die every year on Portuguese roads; and the trend is upward.

In the early hours of Sunday, , , after a car crashed on Avenida das Forças Armadas, in Lisbon.

This case – which killed six people aged between 19 and 21 – came worsen a worrying trend of road accidents involving young people.

According to , the accident is still being investigated. However, for now, everything indicates that the speeding was at the origin of the crash, which caused a fire.

Worrying trend

According to a recent study by the Portuguese Road Prevention (PRP), cited by the same newspaper, “for young people between 18 and 24 years old the risk of death in road accidents is 30% higher than that of the rest of the population”.

“This overrepresentation becomes even more evident when we analyze that, in 2012, young people constituted only 8% of the population but represented 15% of the total number of victims of road accidents”, he adds.

The same study reveals that “weekend accidents are responsible for 40% of deaths and serious injuries that victimize young drivers, a proportion significantly higher than the 34% observed in the remaining age groups”.

Another trend that is “particularly worrying is the fact that around a third of fatal accidents or accidents involving serious injuries to young drivers occur between midnight and 8 amcompared to just 17% in the rest of the population.”

Now, it is clear that the tragic accident last weekendin Lisbon, in front of the US Embassy, reinforces this statistic.

Residents warn of dangers

As Correio da Manhã writes, in recent years, residents of Avenida da Forças Armadas (where this accident occurred), Entrecampos and Avenida dos Estados delivered several petitions to the municipality to appeal for changes in the road.

Among the changes that aim to raise awareness of road accidents and increase public safety in those areas of the city, resident groups demand the placement of radars and three lanes in each direction.

PRP warned last summer that the pattern found in the study itself “suggests the need for creating specific campaigns targeting risk behaviors at night and on the weekend“.