The Kiosko Puskas, a small bar with a terrace at the entrance to Moralzarzal (Madrid), this Sunday became the makeshift funeral home where Polina’s friends gradually arrived. Some hugged each other for long minutes, others cried with their heads resting on their shoulders. Some of her had been with her the same day before the car accident which, at dawn, killed this 26-year-old woman and three teenagers: her 16-year-old sister and two of her friends aged 15 and 13 years.
Before social networks, newspapers or televisions echoed, the news of the deaths of the four young women was already spreading from mobile to mobile in this small town of 12,000 inhabitants in the Sierra de Guadarrama, detailing the tragedy that left upset people. “Polina died, Erika had an accident, Lila didn’t come home…”. The four, residents of the municipality, died early Sunday morning when the car in which they were returning from celebrations in the nearby municipality of Collado Villalba collided head-on with another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle, a 30-year-old civil guard who was on his way to work, was taken to the Puerta de Hierro hospital with serious injuries, although her life is not in danger.
“We are all your friends,” Puskas’ waitress said hours later, as she served bottles on the verge of tears. “The street, the usual fucking street,” protested the uncle of one of the minors. Polina, born in Bulgaria 26 years ago, was well known in Moralzarzal. She used to be one of the owners of Arya, a bar located on the ground floor of the arena where many of her devastated friends went this Sunday. After working, closing the bar and cleaning up, Polina went to Collado Villalba on Saturday evening to look for her 16-year-old sister, a student at the Carmen Martín Gaite Institute. The concerts in the square had ended and with her were two friends of the teenager, Erika and Lila, students of the Leonardo Da Vinci school. The uncle explained that the initial plan was for them to return to the city by bus, “but using the car [de Polina y su hermana] They’ve decided to join.”
At 5:50 in the morning, at kilometer 38 of the M-608 in the direction of Moralzarzal, Polina lost control of the small Toyota Yaris in which the four were traveling and, after two or three swerves, invaded the opposite lane in a curve, according to the first investigations. At that moment, in the direction of Collado Villalba, a 30-year-old woman was traveling, a civil guard by profession, who was going to her job when she found the other car with her head held high. The Yaris was wrecked and all four girls were killed instantly. When firefighters arrived, the young women were already dead and it was impossible to revive them. One of the explanations for the tragic outcome has to do with the vehicles, according to sources in the Summa 112 emergency room: the four victims were traveling in a small low-end vehicle with very fragile sheet metal which was completely destroyed, while the injured woman was traveling in a SUV-type van (with characteristics similar to those of an SUV).
Only a few hours after the accident, there was no sign of the accident at kilometer 38 of the M-608. Only a few patches of oil on the pavement and some sand thrown by the firemen, but the side railings were also in good condition. The crash took place in a curve, almost the only one on the route that connects the two inhabited centres, with no visibility and slightly elevated with a narrow shoulder.
Going out to party in Villalba is common for the young people of Moralzarzal. The six kilometers that unite the two municipalities can be covered in nine minutes and have only two curves. It is a two-way street that connects several cities in the northwest such as Manzanares, Soto and Guadalix de la Sierra and is very popular with cyclists on weekends. Some residents, however, point out that it is a dangerous section that is sometimes scary. Less than a year ago, another young man from Moralzarzal died on the same curve by crashing into the guardrails. “Sometimes for speed, sometimes for cyclists and sometimes for crossing wild boars, but sometimes there’s trouble,” said the aunt of one of the deceased, who cursed the road.
What is most striking is what happens closest. To not miss anything, sign up.
subscribe
The mayor of Moralzarzal, who decreed three days of mourning, insisted that the M-608 is a “very dangerous” road, not only the curve at kilometer 38 where the accident occurred but the entire route, because it has “a lot of traffic density”. About 20,000 vehicles pass this road every day as it serves as a link for freight trucks between the A-6 and A-1 highways. The mayor insisted on the need to “improve this complicated transit” of vehicles.
sign up here to our daily Madrid newsletter.