Three dead in two days on inland Costa del Sol roads as September crashes hit Mijas and Alhaurin de la Torre

Holiday traffic on the Costa del Sol usually eases once August ends. That has not stopped two fatal head-on crashes in 48 hours on the inland roads that link the coast with the Guadalhorce valley, leaving three people dead and a toddler among the injured.

Head-on smash on the A-7053 near Atalaya Macorra

A 54-year-old man died after two cars collided head-on on Thursday night, 10 September, on the A-7053 in Mijas, heading towards Alhaurin el Grande. Emergency service 112 Andalucia recorded the call at 22.12 at kilometre 7. Local reports place the wreck near Atalaya Macorra.

Local sources claim a car coming downhill tried to overtake and struck a vehicle coming up the hill. Those same sources say the man who died was the one attempting the overtake. Guardia Civil traffic officers have not commented so far.

Firefighters cut three other occupants free from the wreckage. A two-year-old child, a 26-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man were taken to Hospital Costa del Sol. Crews from the Guardia Civil, local firefighters and the 061 ambulance service were called to the scene.

Car and lorry collide on the A-7052

Only the afternoon before, two occupants of a car died after a head-on crash with a lorry on the A-7052 in Alhaurin de la Torre. Calls reached 112 around 15.30 on Wednesday, 9 September. Traffic control later put the smash at kilometre 4.7, in the Peñon Zapata area, near the airport.

Witnesses say the car crossed into the oncoming lane. Driver and passenger of the car were trapped and cut out by firefighters from the Malaga provincial consortium, including units from Alhaurin de la Torre and Torremolinos. Both were declared dead at the scene, while the lorry driver was unhurt.

Identities of the two dead have not been officially released in the first agency copy, though later Spanish reports named them as residents of Cañete la Real, one younger and one older.

Why these valley roads keep turning up in crash reports

Neither road is a motorway. Both are conventional two-way routes used by commuters, delivery lorries and visitors travelling inland from Fuengirola, Mijas Costa and Malaga airport. Overtaking on a downhill bend, or a car leaving its lane in front of a heavy vehicle, leaves almost no room to recover.

DGT data still shows most fatal crashes in Spain happen on country roads rather than dual carriageways. Malaga also sits at the bottom of a recent city driving ranking for crash rates and licence points lost, which will not surprise anyone who uses the A-7 or the valley connectors in late summer.

Three deaths in two days will not rewrite the whole year’s statistics on their own. They do show that September on these short inland links is still a dangerous time if someone misjudges a gap or drifts across the centre line.