JÁVEA MOURNS CYCLISTS
Third cyclist died in hospital yesterday (Thursday) Two other victims of N-332 coke-fuelled driver - including one Briton - are in serious condition
THE SAD death toll of the Oliva N-332 tragedy, that saw a drug-fuelled and drunk driver plough into six cyclists, increased to three yesterday (Thursday).
José Antonio Albi, 28, was unable to recover from the critical injuries suffered on Sunday and adds his name to those of 53-year-old Luis Alberto Contreras and Eduardo Monfort Gasent, 28, who were killed almost instantly.
The Gandia driver who hit the six members of the Jávea-based Llebeig Athletics Club triathlon team on the N-332 in Oliva is now behind bars, safe from the wrath of residents in the area who are battling to come to terms with the senseless and avoidable tragedy.
Even standing room was at a pre- mium on Monday and Tuesday at Jávea's San Bartolomé church and later at the crematorium as hundreds of friends and relatives waved off two great friends on the last ever cycle race of their lives.
Over 500 cyclists from Llebeig and clubs in Gandia, Ondara, Beniarbeig, Calpe, Jalón, Muro d'Alcoi and Altea accompanied Edu's and Luis Alberto's coffins as they were borne through Jávea's streets, whilst the town hall declared three days of official mourning.
This meant the Montgó Rock pre-festival concerts were called off and no council business was attended to.
Three of the deceased's closest friends were unable to bid their farewells as they grappled to survive in separate hospitals.
José Antonio Albi clung onto his life until yesterday. He was found by paramedics in cardiac arrest and restarted with CPR. He underwent ' brain drain' surgery in Valencia's La Fe Hospital and was put on life support.
At the time of going to press funeral arrangements had not been announced.
One of the remaining two victims is still unconscious, meaning this heartbreaking news has yet to be broken to him.
Tomorrow (Saturday) at the Pedreguer fun run, Club Llebeig will hand out black ribbons for Edu, Luis Alberto and José Antonio to all competitors and spectators.
These can be collected along with number cloths at the secretary's tent.
Several grieving Jávea mums will never forget Mother's Day 2017, the day a routine weekly cycle training session ended in carnage and bereavement.
Edu Monfort Gasent, 28, whose dad Eduardo was Jávea's mayor for six years, and professional cyclist Luis Alberto Contreras, 53, were killed almost instantly as they were flung into a ditch.
Luis Alberto's son Andrés suffered head injuries and lung damage, has had surgery on both legs and is in an induced coma in Alzira Hospital.
British expat Scott Gordon, 46, spent seven hours in the operating theatre at the hands of four traumatologists for multiple fractures to all four limbs, and was initially critical due to massive blood loss.
His wife was at Luis Alberto's funeral, and said Scott was still in intensive care in Dénia, but stable.
Team leader Jaime Escortell had a split-second window to hurl himself onto the hard shoulder, avoiding the out-ofcontrol Mondeo by barely a foot.
He was so distressed that he could not make his fingers work when trying to dial 112, but a passing Local Police officer did so for him.
Jaime kept asking, over and over: "There's one missing, where's Edu?"
Missed alarm clocks save lives
Dani, 16, slept through his alarm clock and missed the start of the practice outing, which left Jávea at 07.30.
He said he and the team always set off at that time on Sundays to train in La Safor. Initially annoyed with himself, the teen's blood ran cold when, having gone to Ondara to watch a mountain-biking rally, he learned of the tragedy.
"If I'd gone with them, I could be dead now," he realises.
Víctor Froilán, who says Edu was 'like a brother' to him, also overslept on that fateful Sunday 'for the first time ever'; another Jávea cyclist for whom an unplanned lie-in saved his life.
Two other Club Llebeig bikers had turned back for home 20 minutes before the crash due to ' family commitments', again cheating death by chance.
The fatal victims
Luis Alberto, a Venezuelan who was already in professional competitive cycling before moving to Jávea with his wife and son at age 33, ran the local cycling school for four years and owned the Euro.net internet café in the Placeta del Convent.
Fátima, his wife, works in a supermarket and the 'very close' family are described as 'conscientious' and 'friendly'. "Luis never got angry with anyone," said the owner of his local bar, Cervecería José.
Edu Monfort Gasent, son of BLOCCentristes ex-mayor Eduardo Monfort Bolufer, is described as 'all heart' by his friends at TriLlebeig.
An active volunteer with the local Red Cross since age 19, including working as beach lifeguard in summer, Edu is fondly remembered for his heavy involvement in the Loreto port fiestas and as a member of the Berber Pirates' Moors and Christians filà.
He was among the team who worked round the clock during both the Jávea forest fires to help residents forced to evacuate.
In a devastating twist of irony, Edu was recently the face of a Red Cross campaign raising awareness of the risks of drink and drug driving, and calling for motorists to leave at least a 1.5-metre gap between their cars and cyclists.
Tributes pour in from expat community
All the victims are well known to Jávea's international residents, and Scott has numerous close friends among the British community.
Hundreds of expats and Spaniards changed their profile or cover photos on Facebook to one of a black ribbon with a bicycle on Sunday.
Loraine Gostling set up a thread on her 13,000-strong Jávea Connect page on Facebook to collect messages of encouragement for Scott and his friends as they grapple with the toughest race of their lives.
“Thoughts and prayers with all the families involved. Stay strong, guys,” says Heather Hutchinson.
Debbie Eglington said: “Best wishes to them all.”
“Our thoughts are with you all,” say Maggie and Ian MacKenzie, active volunteers with Cancer Care Jávea.
“Scott's a beast! Big love from all my family to him and his!” Tarick Hodeib, who owns Gold Rush Jávea, cheered on his close friend.
“Sending best wishes for speedy recoveries, but I know they aren't enough. The families have lost so much – Fátima has lost her husband Luis Alberto and her son Andrés is in an induced coma in hospital,” said a very worried Stan Szczotka.
“I was supposed to be out on the bike with Scott on Tuesday morning – instead I was at the funeral of a fellow rider. Get well soon, Scott. I feel for you, my friend,” says Gaz Webz, who feels very strongly that 'we need to educate all road users' and 'come together while sharing the highways'. “Let's hope these tragedies are not repeated needlessly again and again,” he says.
Mayor José Chulvi says Jávea is 'gutted' and 'you can imagine the atmosphere in town at the moment', given how wellloved the deceased and injured are locally.
Tennis star David Ferrer and Tour de France and Vuelta winners react
Professional cyclist Antonio Molina of Team Caja Rural is one of Edu's closest friends.
"A chunk of me has been wrenched away in the worst possible way," said the Jávea-born rider.
"Edu was always there for me. In the toughest race moments, his shouts of encouragement brought out the best in me."
Tour de France winners Miguel Indurain and Perico Delgado were in Benitachell on Wednesday to check out the final leg of Spain's version of the global-standard race, the Vuelta a España, over the Puig Llorença peak.
They wore black ribbons in homage to Edu and Luis Alberto when they lined up for inspection at the end.
Cycling champion Alberto Contador, winner of the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, tweeted a furious message upon hearing the news.
"Another two cyclists run over and killed by a woman three times over the alcohol limit and on drugs. Enough already! Maximum punishment!" he wrote on his Twitter page. His colleague Alejandro Valverde tweeted: "The figures keep going up and, sadly, nothing changes. We need more respect for cyclists and tougher sanctions; we're not safe."
Jávea-born Olympic tennis ace David Ferrer dedicated his victory in Madrid against Mikhail Kukushkin on Sunday to his pal Edu.
"I knew him really well, he was close to my family," said a desolate Ferrer.
RETIRED professional Javier Castellar says cyclists injured and killed by careless driving represent 'a very high percentage', which he says is 'scandalous', having already lost a friend in 2001 the same way.
"We want to be Europeans, but we're light years behind the rest of the EU in terms of road safety," Castellar criticises.
"I always look for the safest roads and try to be careful, but it doesn't always depend on you as a cyclist.
"Saturday and Sunday mornings between 07.00 and 09.00 are the scariest moments, when you cross paths with people returning home from nights out.
"I once had to hurl myself onto a pavement to escape a driver coming home from a party who took a roundabout badly."
The regional cycling federation says all recorded accidents so far have been the drivers' fault, due to negligence, drugs, alcohol or a combination.
Last year, the organisation processed 1,500 accident report forms and reveal that seven cyclists were killed in 2016 alone – 21% of the national total.
Many riders now carry dash-cam devices to record evidence.
The federation and several other cycling clubs throughout the region are planning a series of protests calling for greater safety measures and harsher sentences.
'Hard-working' barmaid who learned nothing from a previous driving ban
María Vicenta (Mavi) Sánchez Vaquero, 28, from Gandia, claims she 'remembers nothing' about the tragedy she caused single-handedly when she veered onto the wrong side of the N-332 whilst under the influence of cocaine and more than three times over the alcohol limit.
Her solicitor said she was still coming round from her haze a day later, and was 'very distressed' upon learning what she had done.
But her 'well wishes' to the families of the deceased and injured are likely to be seen as salt in the wound.
Earlier this week, Mavi's family issued a statement offering their 'sincerest condolences' and 'hopes for a swift recovery' for Scott, José Antonio and Andrés – a statement which included Mavi's name among the signatories.
The young barmaid and former PR worker failed to learn her lesson either in 2013 when she was caught in her car carrying a stash of cocaine, which she claimed was for personal use, or the following year when she was hit with an eightmonth driving ban and community service after being found driving at more than double the alcohol limit.
In Spain, driving bans, like loss of licence points, do not automatically expire. Offending motorists are required to undergo 'awareness' and 'training' courses at their own cost.
Mavi did not, meaning her ban was effectively still valid when she mowed down the triathlon team.
The maximum permitted level is 0.25mg of alcohol per litre of breath which, for a woman of average build, is barely one small glass of wine on a full stomach – Mavi's reading was 0.79 at the scene and 0.91 at the police station, the increase showing she had been drinking very soon before the accident.
This was 50% higher than the reading of 0.6 that got her banned in 2013 and, combined with cocaine, proved a lethal cocktail.
Her friends say she went off the rails in 2012 when she became involved with a boyfriend who, they believe, was violent, and who got her into drugs and prostitution.
Although she later split up with the youth in question, she piled on weight and continued to abuse class A drugs.
They say she had worked on the bar at Cullera's Medusa Sunbeach Festival, had never been to college, was a football fan and owned a pitbull called Duque ('Duke').
She was described as 'good as gold' by her mates, who said her ' only fault' was that when she went out on the razzle, she 'tended to lose her head'.
Mavi's boss at the ice-cream kiosk in Ondara's El Portal de la Marina shopping centre, on the second floor, was 'stunned' to hear the news, but did not wish to comment other than confirming the accused was 'very hard-working' and 'an excellent employee'.
Mavi had been partying all night and may have been on her way to work when her life changed at exactly 08.38, midway between Oliva and the El Verger sliproad, close to the Pego junction on the edge of the Marjal.
She lives in Gandia, but had been heading south at the time, an enigma police are attempting to solve.
Three drink-driving checkpoints between Gandia and El Verger had been set up that night, but none of them were on Mavi's route. If one of these had been on the N-332 in Oliva, the tragedy would never have happened.
Mavi's grey Ford Mondeo, borrowed from her grandfather, sustained little damage, and the tarmac bore no signs of her having attempted to brake.
Haggard and in old, dirty clothes, covered in tattoos and with cuts and scratches on her hands and arms, Mavi was photographed collapsed in a heap in front of her car, crying and confused, before being led away in handcuffs.
She is likely to be sent to jail for up to four years, and has been remanded in custody without bail.
Oliva expats 'feel unsafe' on N-332
Jim D., from Oliva, says he goes out on his bike on the fast-moving highway and 'is always wary of cars speeding'.
“Being in a group like these people were is normally safer, as you're easier to see,” he says.
Lindsay adds: “It's a seriously dangerous stretch of road. I've lost count of the acci- dents we've seen there and, personally, I would never cycle on it.”
Andrea F. adds: “No jail sentence would suffice for this drunken, drugaddled killer.”
Perilous overtaking on the single-carriageway stretch, frequent drunk drivers weaving along, sharp and sudden braking and swerving to stop for prostitutes, and cars flying up behind other drivers, flashing and hooting with barely a metre between them are extremely common on the N-332 heading south out of Oliva.
Repeat offences
The fatal crash in Oliva was not an isolated case this week: drunk and stoned drivers have been caught and a biker injured have been reported across the province of Valencia.
On Sunday evening, a collision on Alzira's Calle Blasco Ibáñez led to a man more than six times over the alcohol limit being arrested.
Nobody was hurt, but the accused's breathalyser reading of 1.54 was drastically higher than the maximum permitted 0.25, meaning he could face three to six months in jail and a driving ban of up to four years.
Another multiple tragedy was averted on the AP-7 on Monday evening when a grey Peugeot 307 was reported travelling in the wrong direction at speed, and police blocked off the motorway in time.
Several road-users had to swerve and brake sharply to avoid being hit head-on.
The driver, aged 41, was caught at around 17.40 in Xeraco (La Safor) 20 kilometres after entering the highway in the Almussafes area.
He was found to be more than five times over the drink driving limit, with a reading of 1.36, and tested positive for cocaine.