Barcelona Municipal Police Officer Dies After Crash on Gran Via
A 50-year-old Guardia Urbana officer died after a Policía Nacional car hit his motorcycle in the Eixample, the 17th Barcelona road death this year.
A Guardia Urbana (Barcelona’s municipal police) officer died in hospital on Thursday, Nov. 12, after a Policía Nacional (Spain’s national police) car collided with him in the Eixample district, according to El Caso. Sources at the Ajuntament de Barcelona (city council) told the outlet that the man was on his way to work.
The victim was 50 years old. El Caso reports he is the 17th person to die in a traffic accident in Barcelona this year.
What happened on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes
The crash took place on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, around number 650. A Policía Nacional vehicle was driving along the avenue when it hit a motorcyclist. The cause has not been established. On impact, the rider fell from his motorcycle and was left in critical condition.
Emergency services were called to the scene. The Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques (SEM, Catalonia’s medical emergency service) took him to a hospital, where he died shortly afterward.
Who is investigating
The Unitat d’Investigació i Prevenció de l’Accidentalitat (UCAT), the Guardia Urbana unit that looks into traffic accidents, is examining the circumstances. According to El Caso, investigators want to establish exactly what happened, including whether the police driver acted improperly or whether the motorcyclist made an improper maneuver. The dead officer was a colleague of the investigators.
No findings on responsibility had been published when El Caso reported the story. The outlet’s account of the sequence of events rests on what it learned from the city and the emergency services, and the investigation is where the cause will be settled.
Why it matters
With this death, the toll from road accidents in Barcelona reaches 17 people for the year, the figure El Caso gave. For people who live in the city, the Eixample is a dense grid of avenues where cars, motorcycles and pedestrians share the road, and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes is one of its main crossing routes.
The Ajuntament sent its condolences to the family and friends of the officer. It also said it remains committed to continuing its work to reduce the number of victims in traffic accidents.
Source: El Caso
