Fatal hit-and-run in Matosinhos: “lorry driver may not realise that he killed someone”

Another hit-and-run is in the news today, this time having claimed the life of an 82-year-old woman in Santa Cruz do Bispo, Matosinhos, yesterday afternoon.

Witnesses describe a lorry running the woman over, and not stopping.

Correio da Manhã reports that the incident took place on a pedestrian crossing; Observador describes the location as ‘close to a roundabout’.

Whatever the case, the woman was fatally struck, at around 5pm, and horrified witnesses appear to have little recollection of the licence plate or other identifiable features of the vehicle, described only as a ‘camião’ (lorry/ truck/ HGV).

GNR police are now trying to piece together witness reports to come up with information that might identify the vehicle, or indeed the driver.

A source has admitted that this may not have been a standard hit-and-run (in which the driver is aware of having hit someone, but purposely keeps going). The driver in this case may simply have been oblivious to what happened, the source tells Observador, suggesting the size of the truck was such that a ‘knock’ could have gone unnoticed.

Source material: Correio da Manhã/ Observador

Natasha Donn

Journalist for the Portugal Resident.