Owner of Canary Island winery ‘mowed down’ outside cellar door
The owner of a rural wine shop was killed instantly when a car veered off the road and hit the bench on which he was sitting chatting with a friend.
Two people chatting on a bench were killed instantly when a car ploughed into them at about 6.30pm on Sunday 24 August. The victims, Faride Cruz Niebla and Jose Negrin Aguilar, owner of La Tienda del Vino, had been sitting on a bench outside the wine shop when the vehicle veered off the road.
According to local police, there was “nothing they could have done to get out of the way.”
The Valle Gran Rey municipality on the island of La Gomera, where the incident took place, told Tenerife Weekly it was “united in mourning” for the pair and declared three days of official mourning following the accident, which the mayor said had come as a “harsh blow”.
Calling the couple “much-loved residents in our community”, mayor Borja Barroso added that their memory “will forever remain in the collective heart of Valle Gran Rey.”
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“We are deeply saddened, shocked, and outraged… such painful moments, we wish to stand alongside their families and friends with our support and affection,” mayor Barroso said.
Waiting for hours
The female passenger of the out-of-control car was airlifted to hospital, where she is said to be “in critical condition”. Meanwhile, concerned residents who witnessed the tragedy expressed heightened anxiety after “waiting for hours” for the island’s authorities to arrive to remove the bodies. Air resources were used to keep the GH-1 road closed for several hours.
“In these summer months, with everyone on holiday, when a tragedy occurs the situation complicates because sometimes the coroner has to come from the Villa, and if they’re not on the island, we have to wait for them to come from Tenerife,” the mayor said.
La Tienda del Vino is described as “a popular wine retail and tasting shop” in the village of Arore on La Gomera, which is visited by many tourists each year.
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