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A truck driver who filmed the aftermath of Diogo Jota’s automobile crash has disputed claims that the Liverpool footballer was speeding in his Lamborghini before the accident.
Jota and his younger brother Andre Silva each died last Thursday after they were travelling along the A-52 motorway in north-west Spain within the early hours of the morning.
Jota’s shiny green Lamborghini Huracan suffered a suspected tyre blowout before it veered off the road and burst into flames.
A preliminary report from Spain’s Guardia Civil police force has revealed that Jota was more than likely the motive force of the automobile, while evidence from the crash ‘points to a possible excessive speed beyond the speed limit of the road’.
Jose Azevedo, a Portuguese truck driver, was travelling along the A-52 when he encountered the burning Lamborghini with Jota and his younger brother contained in the vehicle.
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Azevedo, who filmed the automobile on fire as he approached the accident in his truck, says he tried to place out the flames and insists the Lamborghini didn’t look like exceeding the 120km/h (75mph) speed limit.
‘The truck driver, which was me, filmed it, stopped, grabbed the fireplace extinguisher and tried to assist. I attempted to assist but attributable to the impact of the accident, there was nothing I could do, absolutely nothing,’ Azevedo said in a video.
‘They passed me completely calmly and weren’t speeding. You’ve my word they weren’t speeding. They were completely relaxed.
‘I drive this road Monday through Saturday and I understand it’s a terrible place. It’s a dark road. I could see the make and color of the automobile.
‘I offer my sincere condolences. I even have a transparent conscience, I do know what I saw. Unfortunately, that’s the way it ended. I finished filming, tried to assist, but unfortunately, there was nothing I could do.’
Spain’s Guardia Civil said: ‘The expert report continues to be being worked on and finalised.
‘Amongst other things traffic police from the Zamora branch of the Civil Guard are studying the tread marked by one in every of the wheels of the vehicle.
‘Every part can also be pointing to a possible high excess of speed over the permitted speed on that stretch of the motorway.
‘All of the tests carried out for the moment point to the motive force of the crash vehicle being Diogo Jota.
‘The expert police report when it’s finalised might be handed over to a court in Puebla de Sanabria.’
Jota was travelling to the northern Spanish port of Santander to take a ferry to England ahead of his return to Liverpool for the beginning of their pre-season campaign.
The 28-year-old father-of-three, who won the Premier League title with Liverpool last season and married his partner Rute Cardoso 11 days before the crash, had been advised to not fly after undergoing a lung procedure.
Jota and Andre Silva were buried of their home city of Gondomar near Porto last Saturday.
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