It was pitch black, around five in the morning and the headlights of the lorry didn’t pick up the gap in the road until it was too late – it plunged into the river. The incident occurred in the province of Toledo after heavy rains had literally swept away the main-road bridge.

The driver didn’t have a chance because with a 5-metre drop the weight of the vehicle drove the cab into the riverbed – if he didn’t die in the impact, then he soon drowned, unable to escape.

He was not the only victim because when the emergency services arrived and began exploring the bank they found a blue car which had also plunged into the river – the only occupant was dead. The young man had just returned from dropping his girlfriend at her house. Being a lighter vehicle, the current had carried the car 200 metres further downstream.

The amount of flood water coming down Rio Yeguas must have been tremendous because the pressure ate the bridge completely, leaving a 20 metre wide gap. And it was sudden, because only 20 minutes before the accident a Guardia Civil patrol car had passed over the same bridge and all appeared well.

Chance would have it that barely a month previously another bridge, a dozen metres further downstream, had collapsed, but this time there were no fatalities.

(News: Fuencaliente, Ciudad Real, Castilla la Mancha)