Two Basque tourists, a mother and daughter, died in Tanzania on Sunday after suffering an accident in the car in which they were travelling. The vehicle left the access road to the Ngorongoro crater, in the north of the country, and fell from a height of 600 metres. The deceased were also accompanied by the father and son, who have survived, although the father has fractures in his legs and arm, with a serious prognosis, and the son, aged 15, has chest injuries with broken ribs and a possible lung puncture, with a reserved prognosis.
Official sources from the Foreign Ministry have confirmed the double death and the transfer of the two injured Spaniards to a hospital in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, 250 kilometres away as the crow flies. The Spanish Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, in coordination with local authorities, continue to assist those affected, accompanying the family and providing all possible help, the same sources indicate. The ministry was informed of the accident on Monday.
The family was visiting an area known for having the largest number of wild animals in Africa. According to the statement This Tuesday on Radio Euskadi A tour guide who witnessed the accident said the accident occurred at the end of a safari, in an area that is difficult to access and where “a lot of experience is needed to drive”. Leaving the crater, he explained, “there is a very sharp curve and a steep slope”: “I think the driver was unable to change gears quickly; he turned backwards, overturned and fell into the crater”, he explained. After the incident, the guides and witnesses initially helped the injured. “We carried the injured on our shoulders to the top, where the government ambulance arrived to take them to the hospital”, he said.
The father, EFE reports, works as a doctor in Bilbao and his children studied at the French School, a private school in the Biscayan town of Zamudio. The daughter, aged 17, had finished this course at that school and planned to go to university after the summer, while the son had completed the second year of compulsory secondary education. The family lived in Getxo, also in Bizkaia. The mayor, Amaia Aguirre, expressed her consternation in a statement and conveyed her “most sincere condolences” to the family.
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