High winds bring tragedy to the Island

PALMA
THE Grupo Serra media group, which publishes The Daily Bulletin was deeply shocked yesterday with the news that an early morning accident on the Llucmajor to Palma highway had taken the life of an employee.

Magdalena Soler Català, aged 38, a senior member of staff with Diari de Balears - the publishing group's Catalan newspaper, was the passenger in a car driven by her boyfriend which was involved in a collision with a lorry which had crossed the central reservation. Nothing could have been done to avoid the collision - another lorry travelling directly behind the victim's car ploughed into the crash scene but without major impact. The accident happened at about 7.15am and resulted in Magdalena's boyfriend and the driver of the lorry which had crossed the central reservation being seriously injured. Both were taken by emergency services to hospital in Palma. Guardia Civil, local police and firemen had attended the scene of the accident.

Meanwhile, ports across the Balearic Islands were dealing with a selection of incidents affecting maritime traffic as a result of the high seas. Gale force winds had forced the Port of Mahon on Minorca to remain closed since 10.30am on Sunday. According to Iscomar shipping sources, the cargo ship Don Fernando and the oil tanker Travester had had to remain at the entrance to the port in Mahon awaiting sea conditions to subside to enable them to dock. Ferry crossings, including those scheduled by Acciona and Balearia were cancelled. In Palma, the Mercedes del Mar ferry had stopped its early morning sailing from Valencia due to adverse weather conditions and the same company had decided not to let its Nura Nova sail at 8.30am from Alcudia to Ciutadella on Minorca. The Yellow Alert which was declared on land in the Balearics yesterday due to dangerously high winds will probably be dropped today, whilst the Orange Alert which was in place for maritime traffic yesterday will be downscaled to yellow in spite of warnings of continued heavy seas. The Balearic Meteorological Centre confirmed that winds were gusting up to 131 kilometres an hour in Sierra Tramuntana mountain range and at 93 kph on the northeast coast..