The taxi driver was conscious but trapped inside the car after the impact. Firefighters freed him after several hours, and he was taken to hospital; the truck driver had no serious injuries. Later local reporting said the taxi driver was rescued alive and taken to hospital for urgent treatment.
The lorry lost control on the MA-20 towards Cádiz, overturned and struck the taxi as it joined the motorway from avenida de Valle-Inclán. The crash happened at about 8.10pm on Wednesday, 11 November, at the Ortega Prados tunnel, popularly known as the false Carlos Haya tunnel. Emergency service 112 Andalucía received several calls about the collision at around 20:10.
Firefighters attended, joined by Guardia Civil de Tráfico. Policía Local also went to the scene. Road-maintenance crews and medical staff from 061 responded as well. The response included emergency medical services and other road crews.
The access lane from avenida de Valle-Inclán was completely closed, while traffic on the MA-20 was limited to the left-hand lane by the tunnel. Málaga's Traffic Management Centre advised drivers to avoid the area and use the A-7 as an alternative. The city council’s Mobility Area announced at 21:05 that traffic on the MA-20 towards Torremolinos had been cut. Reports put congestion around the tunnel at more than two kilometres.
Rainfall and the wet road were the initial suspected factors in the lorry's loss of control. Witnesses told La Opinión de Málaga that the lorry may have encountered accumulated water during intense rainfall associated with storm Charles. Authorities were also to investigate whether it had been travelling too fast, according to the reported account.
The tunnel area has seen serious crashes before. In February 2017, a four-year-old child died when the car he was travelling in hit the MA-20 central reservation about 50 metres from the tunnel. A driver died after a car overturned inside it in December 2013, and two other people were injured. Heavy vehicles have also overturned or blocked the road there. One was a lorry carrying bricks in May 2014; another was a trailer that crossed the MA-20 in February 2025.
Separately, RUSSPAIN.COM reported on the Urda rail disaster inquiry, in which European prosecutors examined possible misuse of EU funds after a crash that killed 69 people.
