An elderly British couple in Nerja fell into a ditch whilst walking home resulting in the death of the 74-year-old husband.

The wife remained lying their unconscious for nine hours before coming round and calling for help using her mobile phone.

The accident occured on the night of the 6th in or near (it is not clear) Urbanización San Juan de Capistrano, whose approximate 500 dwellings are mostly inhabited by foreigners, the majority of which are British residents.

The accident took place around 21.00h somewhere along the footpath that connects San Francisco (where the couple reside) and Vía Real. The footpath is used by many people living in the urbanización as a short cut to catch or alight from the municipal bus running to the centre of town.

The autopsy revealed that the man died from a severe head injury after hitting his head on a large stone at the bottom of the trench.

The ditch has existed since 2007 when heavy rain etched it out. The comunidad of the urbanizacion had requested permission to fix the problem by building a small footbridge over the gully but the authorities (Cuenca Mediterránea) had denied them this yet not moved to remedy this obvious danger.

In the meantime, the Town Hall has fenced off the area using pedestrian barriers to prevent pedestrians using the pathway but as it lies within the urbanización it is private property.

Editorial comment: this reminds me of a case of a chiringuito who asked Costas to repair a  hole that had been eaten out by waves under their terrace. Costas said that they couldn’t, as they didn’t have the money. The proprietor went ahead and repaired it from his own pocket only to be reprimanded by Costas, telling him to undo the repairs and threatened him with a fine for good measure.

(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia – Photo, E. Cabezas)