Tour operators still take groups of tourists
The Madeira News website, with its automated news feed incorporating Google translate, has picked up a report that a tourist died today, in Madeira, following a fall of about 30 metres on a cliff next to Cascata dos Anjos, in the municipality of Ponta do Sol, a source from the fire department told Lusa.
At 1:00 pm, the mountain rescue team of the Mixed Firefighters of Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Sol, an ambulance and a support car were at the scene, according to a source from that corporation.
The same source added that, in total, there were about 10 firefighters at the scene, in a rescue action that is still ongoing.
The alert was given around 11:00 am, according to firefighters.
The Cascata dos Anjos is visited daily by tourists, despite the fact that the road is closed and it is a dangerous area where landslides and falling rocks occur, especially in winter.
Tour operators still take groups of tourists
Despite the danger and prevention carried out by the authorities, Cláudia Dias Ferreira, coordinator of the Municipal Civil Protection of Ponta de Sol, reveals that guides and operators take “groups of tourists” to Cascata dos Anjos.
The death of the Polish tourist at Cascata dos Anjos yesterday, again raised the question about the permanence and movement of people in the location, where water from a mountain falls down an unstable cliff to the seafront. The road has been officially closed since 2016, says the Ponta de Sol City Council, but the passage of vehicles with tourists and even locals on foot is very frequent.
COVID-19 in Madeira: updates can be found in an earlier post
All the incidental news from Madeira – up to 60 reports per day – is being picked up automatically, translated, and posted on our sister website, madeiraislandnews, no matter how trivial:
Prosecute for corporate manslaughter, that will stop that source of craziness, and close off the ends of roads with proper barriers that could have locked gates so maintenance and emergency vehicles can get through.
Unfortunately, this is just one example of a serious lip service approach to H and S that the island suffers from,an example being ( and I stress example) placing zebra crossings next to bus stops where drivers dont know if person waiting for bus or crossing road, pedestrians who just turn from one direction of movement and without missing a stride walk straight across zebra crossings, we all see it daily.
Low walls, big drops on other side, I can go,on and on. Building site dangerous practices ( something I know a lot about) are frightening and there for any H and S inspector to see,even wihout going on site. I had a scaffold errected to do some work on villa, carried out by a scaffold company, I have never seen such an Heath Robinson structure in my entire 60 years in the construction business, condemned it, start again, again condemned it and made them adjust it. But see the same structures all over the place.
I drove down that road two days ago. There were no barriers saying the road was closed. There were plenty of other cars on the road and a lot of tourists trying to stand under the waterfall.
There are No Entry signs at both the MDM and PDS ends of the road, but you obviously ignored them.
You can’t close the road as many people live along it!! So, fix the road up properly and install a canopy in exposed places and make it like the restored coastal road from Tabua to Rib Brava. Make the coastal road at Madalena do Mar also one way and you’re close to having a great coastal tourist road which could have a proper path for cyclists and walkers too nearly all the way from Calheta to Rib Brava.
Well the main problem people don’t pay attention they are more concerned in taking selfies . And a fine example is a hike that I did last weekend Almoçageme to Cabo da Roca through Praia da Ursa. And in the footpath from Almocageme to Praia da Ursa was a vertical descend with a lot of debris and slippery and mud and people more concerned in taking selfies than looking in the terrain and even was need the guide call attention op people that wasn’t the time to take selfies.