Towards the end of last month, drivers found that the entrance to the A-7 was blocked by the Guardia Civil – the same was the case at the Taramay end. Something was up and many, like my most miserable self, suspected a drugs bust or a major accident. The second was closer to the truth.

However, there were no mangled vehicles and bloodied corpses, for this was an exercise to deal with such a major accident.

The simulated accident involved 15 injured people, a large lorry carrying a dangerous substance, somewhere in the middle of the Cantalobos tunnel. The whole exercise was co¬ordinated at the tunnel control centre, which is situated at the La Herradura junction for the A-7.

On the down side, nobody had thought of announcing it before hand, which caused an intense flow of traffic through Almuñécar, producing the habitual tail-back near the Guardia-Civil junction.
Anyway, now you know why that tunnel has been proclaimed as one of the safest in the whole of Europe.

(news: Andalucia, Granada, Herradura)