Two people who witnessed the crash that killed Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his younger brother have spoken out. They said the footballer was not driving fast before the accident, which is different from what the Spanish police reported. Jota, 28, and his brother Andre Silva, 26, died last Thursday when their Lamborghini crashed in northern Spain.
Police in Zamora said the Lamborghini Huracan, which costs around £180,000, was driving much faster than the allowed speed of 120km/h (74mph). They also said the car might have had a tyre burst before the crash.
One of the witnesses, Portuguese truck driver Jose Azevedo, said he saw Jota’s car pass him calmly and not at high speed. He was the one who recorded the burning car on video. Azevedo said he tried to help using a fire extinguisher, but the crash was too bad, and nothing could be done to save the brothers.
Another truck driver, Jose Aleixo Duarte, also said the car passed him shortly before the crash and was not speeding. He mentioned that the road where the accident happened was in very bad shape, which might have contributed to the crash.
A Spanish road safety expert, Javier Lopez Delgado, said there were likely many reasons for the accident. He mentioned the car’s speed, the condition of the tyres, and the poor quality of the road. He explained that if they had been driving more slowly, they might have survived. He also said another crash had taken place on that same road just eight days earlier.
Jota and his brother were travelling to Santander to catch a ferry to the UK. They chose not to fly because Jota recently had surgery on his lungs. He had just married his longtime partner Rute Cardoso, who is the mother of their three children.
Their funeral took place on Saturday in their hometown of Gondomar, close to Porto in Portugal. Many of Jota’s Liverpool teammates and fellow Portuguese players came to pay their last respects.
The Spanish Civil Guard is still carrying out its investigation. Their early findings show that Jota was driving when the car had a tyre problem while trying to overtake another vehicle. The car hit a barrier and caught fire, which led to the deaths of both brothers.
Azevedo said he only decided to speak out after people online accused him of recording the video just to become popular. He said he drives on that road every day and knows how dangerous it is. He insisted that Jota was not speeding.
